Antony wrote:Edward,
Do you have to pay to receive a (regular) SMS (text message)? Over here in Australia, only premium text messages received are payable by the user (receiver). If people receives unwanted premium SMS (in Australia), they can complain to their mobile carrier. If everything fails, people can go to the telecommunications industry ombudsman as they have the power to demand the consumer receives a refund.
Keep your unwanted premium message in your phone, prepare for evidence in the court.
I am actually on a Business plan with the mobile company and did
not have to enter into a new contract when I changed from the previous Personal plan I had. Once I fulfilled my original one year agreement (January 2005-January 2006), that was it. If I had switched to one of their Promo plans, that would have required a new contract and I would likely have received a new phone as well.
Under the current plan I have, each month it includes:
600 minutes
Unlimited mobile-to-mobile (as long as the number I am calling or the number that is calling me, is on the same mobile company)
500 SMS (text) messages
Once the 501st SMS message is exchanged (whether it is sent or received), I would then begin to pay for them, until the next billing period begins, then everything resets back to zero.
If I send or receive a MMS (multimedia) message (e.g. a photo or a ringtone), those are billed separately.
Their plans also includes basic access to the mobile web, I believe it's limited to pages internal to the mobile company so the customer can check their current minutes of usage and billing information.
I have unlimited mobile web on my account, so I can access everything out there. That is grandfathered in at $4.95/month.
I'm not with the largest mobile company in the U.S., but they don't have to be the biggest to be the best.

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