this post was submitted on 28 Jan 2025
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Thats probably country dependant, SMS has been functionally free for a long time in Australia.
I'm not Australian but I'm fairly confident cell carriers aren't charitable organizations there...?
You pay for the phone plan, but all of them have unlimited SMS. So functionally, it's free.
That's not free, it's part of the phone plan...
A phone plan is required to use SMS. An internet connection is required to use WhatsApp/Signal/whatever. If the price of the phone plane has to be counted as the price of using SMS, then surely the price of the internet connection should be counted as the price of using Signal/WhatsApp?
Or, we could be realistic, and acknowledge that the majority of people already have phone plans and internet connections, and therefore SMS, WhatsApp, signal, etc are all functionally free.
No. The internet connection is not part of the app. You can run the apps without paying for internet. You can run them entirely on WiFi if you really wanted to.
And how much does WiFi cost?
Depends on what WiFi you're using. It can be free.
Once you pay for it, it's free.
https://youtu.be/MrccTMwoLv8?si=jdjg9qNr84MvwauF