I have tweeted a few times lately about my billing issues with TMobile (Auto-Pay Fail, Over-Limit Unlimited). I have now finally gotten an answer. Apparently TMobile has been charging me for outgoing text messages to internet services (Twitter, Google Mobile Search, IM, etc…). I wrote a post a few weeks ago (Dam the Stream) that detailed my newly found annoyance at being constantly plugged in. Apparently this not only saved me some annoyance, but also some money too. Since each outgoing message was being charged $0.20.
I am confused about this ridiculous cost to me. So I did some digging and a little research into the situation. According to Will Park the wireless providers are gouging their customers for a service that costs basically nothing to provide. Text messages are sent via the ‘control channel’ on a wireless network. This channel is constantly on and providing your phone with information such as new voicemail, incoming calls, etc. The reason that the service costs almost nothing is because that channel needs to be used for normal phone operations. This is akin to sending a network broadcast message or a “net send <insert name>” .
What this amounts to is just TMobile finding a new profit channel where it doesn’t make sense to have one.
Extra Links for you:
Wikipedia
Control Channel Patent (I think this is the right patent)
Digital Wireless Basics
[EDIT]
I forgot to put in the original publish that TMobile had given me a “We’re being nice to you” refund for the text’s that had been sent out. I have summarily removed all service #’s from my phone so that I can’t do it accidentally.