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$4000 cell phone bill?

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Everyone should have a cell phone(personal communicator). It's much better than the old days when you called a house full of people, disturb everybody, only to find out the person you wanted to talk to isn't there. You then leave a message with somebody that never gets forwarded to the proper recipient :^/
 
When I got my phone they guy at the AT&T store said the highest they've ever seen was about 17K messages. I thought hitting 2-3K was crazy. He did clarify that it was, of course, a 16 year old girl that managed that one.
 
The most I've ever done in one month is 3k text messages, and yes, it took a seriously concerted effort to get even that high. 10k texts is what, an average of 333 per day, give or take? That's a text every ~3 minutes, assuming the kid spends 8 hours sleeping and doesn't have his phone set on autopilot or something.

Then again, I suppose if you send a LOT of mass-texts, you could hike up your numbers fairly quickly.
 
Originally posted by: NFS4
Originally posted by: leftyman
my daughter regularly texts between 8,000 up to 10,000 x's month. Her record was approximately 15,000 IIRC.
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Does she have an actual life? 🙂
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Said the guy with 66,000 posts.

lulz. I get it.

 
Originally posted by: V00DOO
Should have gotten her a pay as you go cell phone! I received 1 TM last month and it costs me $.20.
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HaHA, you're getting reamed. My texts are only 15¢ :^P
 
Did you know cell phone companies actually piggy-back text messages on their control channel?

It costs them nothing to transmit the 140 bytes of information in a 160 character (full) text message.

But they manage to charge people, not only to send, but also to receive.

Currently text messages represent the highest bandwidth charge on the planet.

Originally posted by: lxskllr
Originally posted by: V00DOO
Should have gotten her a pay as you go cell phone! I received 1 TM last month and it costs me $.20.
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HaHA, you're getting reamed. My texts are only 15¢ :^P
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:laugh: I pay 8 cents per text, and I'm on a pre-paid plan. My cell bill last month was $8.
 
The parents were complaining to the school administration that most of the texting was being done during school hours.

If you asked most parents why they even give their children cell phones, the top answer would be security. "What if my child was in trouble?" "If I need to get of hold of my kids, they're only a phone call away."

We live in an era where we are slaves to our electronic devices.

*as I slowly back away from my computer*
 
Originally posted by: jpeyton
Did you know cell phone companies actually piggy-back text messages on their control channel?

It costs them nothing to transmit the 140 bytes of information in a 160 character (full) text message.

But they manage to charge people, not only to send, but also to receive.

Currently text messages represent the highest bandwidth charge on the planet.

:laugh: I pay 8 cents per text, and I'm on a pre-paid plan. My cell bill last month was $8.
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Have proof of this? Last time I checked my system, we send them over traffic channels. 😉
And it costs them nothing? Oh yeah, cell sites just pop up on their own after you plant a seed and water them every day. And let's not forget the MTSO's and backhaul that telcos and equipment vendors give away for free because they are bored.
 
Originally posted by: jersiq
Originally posted by: jpeyton
Did you know cell phone companies actually piggy-back text messages on their control channel?

It costs them nothing to transmit the 140 bytes of information in a 160 character (full) text message.

But they manage to charge people, not only to send, but also to receive.

Currently text messages represent the highest bandwidth charge on the planet.

:laugh: I pay 8 cents per text, and I'm on a pre-paid plan. My cell bill last month was $8.
Click to expand...

Have proof of this? Last time I checked my system, we send them over traffic channels. 😉
And it costs them nothing? Oh yeah, cell sites just pop up on their own after you plant a seed and water them every day. And let's not forget the MTSO's and backhaul that telcos and equipment vendors give away for free because they are bored.
Click to expand...
Text

Compare their charges for straight data versus 20cents/140bytes.
 
Originally posted by: jpeyton

Text

Compare their charges for straight data versus 20cents/140bytes.
Click to expand...

And here's a dump from my terminal (sorry I can't provide a full screenshot as it's proprietary)

Text

Please note the Init CE column. This means the inital channel element that the SMS was assigned, which *gasp* is a traffic channel.

Do you believe everything you read on the internet?
 
Kids shouldn't get cell phones until they start driving -- end of discussion 🙂

If your kid can't drive, they're likely in the company of a responsible adult at the time -- so why do they need a phone? Just because everyone else is going it? Parents need to stop being such pussies.
 
Originally posted by: jersiq
Originally posted by: jpeyton

Text

Compare their charges for straight data versus 20cents/140bytes.
Click to expand...

And here's a dump from my terminal (sorry I can't provide a full screenshot as it's proprietary)

Text

Please note the Init CE column. This means the inital channel element that the SMS was assigned, which *gasp* is a traffic channel.

Do you believe everything you read on the internet?
Click to expand...
Yes I do believe the NYT and Wired versus some anonymous user posting a screenshot of a spreadsheet.

But text messages are not just tiny; they are also free riders, tucked into what?s called a control channel, space reserved for operation of the wireless network.

That?s why a message is so limited in length: it must not exceed the length of the message used for internal communication between tower and handset to set up a call. The channel uses space whether or not a text message is inserted.
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I just got a blackberry for work. I really don't know how people enjoy texting. I find it really anoying to type emails on that thing, I enjoy it for being able to read emails if I'm not at my desk but if I need to type anything I rather just go to my desk and type it. If I'm at home I'll just send it from my home email. Guess with time you get better at it and it comes natural.

But if your texting THAT much, get the unlimited lulz package.
 
Pffft! These kids are pikers. In the dark ages before cellphones, an ex-girlfriend came to me all excited because her phone bill was less than her rent for the first time in a year. I immediately opened her purse and cut all her charge cards in half. I guess that's why she's an ex. 🙂
 
Originally posted by: ElFenix
$4,000 for 2 and a half megabytes of transfer.

nice.
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Lol, no kidding. Cellular text and data rates are highway robbery.

At least it seems like they're investing it into the network, though. 3G is nice, and 4G is just around the corner. Crazy how much much cell phones and the networks have improved in just the last decade.

As far as texting, that amount isn't uncommon (especially among high schoolers, guess they have nothing better to do in class). Let's assume someone is pretty fast and can churn them out in five seconds. That would be 13.9 hours straight of texting every month. 😕
 
Originally posted by: sactoking
This is why my children won't have cellphones. Billions of people lived just fine w/o them, my kids can too.
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That's nothing. People lived for thousands of years without electricity. My kids will have none of this "refrigeration" nonsense.
 
I send about 8,000 texts a month and receive about 7,500. I've peaked over 10,000. It's really not that hard.
 
Originally posted by: Whisper
The most I've ever done in one month is 3k text messages, and yes, it took a seriously concerted effort to get even that high. 10k texts is what, an average of 333 per day, give or take? That's a text every ~3 minutes, assuming the kid spends 8 hours sleeping and doesn't have his phone set on autopilot or something.

Then again, I suppose if you send a LOT of mass-texts, you could hike up your numbers fairly quickly.
Click to expand...

How do you people send so many messages? I have something like 250/month with Verizon and maybe use 150-200/month at most.
 
Originally posted by: Brainonska511
Originally posted by: Whisper
The most I've ever done in one month is 3k text messages, and yes, it took a seriously concerted effort to get even that high. 10k texts is what, an average of 333 per day, give or take? That's a text every ~3 minutes, assuming the kid spends 8 hours sleeping and doesn't have his phone set on autopilot or something.

Then again, I suppose if you send a LOT of mass-texts, you could hike up your numbers fairly quickly.
Click to expand...

How do you people send so many messages? I have something like 250/month with Verizon and maybe use 150-200/month at most.
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I text in bursts, my GF will send me one, and we'll spend 5 or so minutes going back and forth. It's not hard for me to send her 10 in about 2 minutes, if I do that once an hour for 8 hours that's 80 a day. While that only comes out to about 2400 a month, I'm spending less than 20 minutes a day doing it. If I was to focus and text her 6 minutes out of every hour I could hit 7500 in a month. If I had enough to say, it wouldn't be too hard to for me to hit 10k in 30 days. And it definitely wouldn't take me all day every day to reach it. I would estimate it takes me 7'ish hours to send the 2400 I send. 10k in one weekend could be done 🙂
 
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