Text messaging: charging first class fares for a stowaway

I've griped before about how text messaging rates were going up. All the carriers suddenly decide to increase their per-message rates by the same amount - but the NYT does a nice job telling us the rest of the story on text messages.

As in: There is no bandwidth charge to the carrier.

Or, as a more informed writer would put it:

...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.

[snip]

Customers with unlimited [texting] plans, like diners bringing a healthy appetite to an all-you-can-eat cafeteria, might think they’re getting the best out of the arrangement. But the carriers, unlike the cafeteria owners, can provide unlimited quantities of “food” at virtually no cost to themselves — so long as it is served in bite-sized portions.

So long as consumers believe that this service should follow the standard pay-per-use model, the wireless companies can continue to extract fees that are all out of proportion to their costs.

Nice.