Is there any reason, beyond corporate greed, for SMS messages to cost so much?

If I get it right, an SMS message is just a short string of data, no different from a message we send in a messenger. If so, then what makes them so expensive? If we’d take Internet plans and consider how much data an SMS takes, we should pay tiny fraction of a cent for each message; why doesn’t that happen?

  • rdyoung@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    None of that is actually true as a contrast.

    There are tons of free wifi networks from hotels to restaurants, etc.

    None of what you are saying makes any sense.

    • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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      6 months ago

      In Barcelona, I can go for a ten mile walk and constantly be in range of 3+ open wifi networks. In America it’s not uncommon to be out of range of wifi when standing on the curb closest to a restaurant or hotel… additionally American wifi networks are much less likely to be open and municipal services are less well funded.

    • Ecksell@lemmy.one
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      6 months ago

      All of that is true, and makes perfect sense. It all depends on where you live, of course.

        • Maeve@kbin.social
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          6 months ago

          And? I can see several neighbors’ residences. We barely get cell signal half the time, and the only Internet currently is dodgy WiFi, which also regularly goes wonky. A lot of times we can walk into nearby establishments and leave empty -handed, because Internet is down and we don’t have cash enough in have to make our purchases.

          • rdyoung@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            Sounds like you need to move away from the actual sticks.

            I call where I am country’ish because while I have only a handful of neighbors, we have gigabit down from spectrum, damn near gig over 5g, etc.

    • SolOrion@sh.itjust.works
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      6 months ago

      There’s literally like four places with free wifi in my entire town. Most of the restaurants don’t have it, and we only have two hotels… neither of which has properly free wifi- you have to get a room to use it.

      • rdyoung@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        If you want to get technical, my town (really a village) has zero free wifi networks. It’s the larger city to my south that has all of the restaurants, hotels, retail, etc with free wifi.