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In terms of cost per kilobyte of data, the Earth-based telecoms companies are charging us more per byte of data than the cost of communicating with Mars. Try wheeling that statistic out the next time you’re trying to blag an upgrade.
According to enjoyably wild cost comparisons put together by Swedish Pirate Party founder Rick Falkvinge, it works at as around $284,000 per gigabyte — including the cost of building and launching the Mars Global Surveyor itself — to transmit data back from Mars.
And when it comes to mundane terrestrial text messaging, using an average cost of five US cents per message and multiplying the simple messages up until you hit the same quantity of data, you come up with a cost of $383,000 to transmit one gigabyte of data in the form of SMS messages.
Slightly simple and a bit like comparing apples to oranges, but still. Taking into account the fact that mobile networks use existing, empty space to carry texts, Falkvinge comes up with an actual cost to the networks of 33 nanocents per text and an astonishing 15 billion per cent profit mark-up, which he claims represents an “abysmal failure” of the free market to set realistic costs. [Falkvinge]
Image credit: Nasa
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That explains all the “Took another picture of a rock. LOL” text’s I’ve been getting.
Why has your mum being taking pictures of rocks?
It’s a hobby.
Hey Rover. Hows it goin? You know that party we said you could have when you got home… well… How do I say this? Your not coming home. Sorry. Cya l8r. Oh wait, no we wont! HA!
Your comment just reminded me of this =P
http://xkcd.com/695/
Ummm… Gary, that’s $284k per *gigabyte*, then the article would make sense…
Once you knock off the cost of the phone, i pay £8.41/mo for 1000 sms, 1gb data and 200 minutes. So ignoring the tiny ammounts of data transfer used for transmission for voice and sms, im paying £8.41/gb.
I think you’re missing the point of the article somewhat though – it’s discussing the cost per gigabyte of a text message, which doesn’t travel through your monthly data plan. Apps like Whatsapp don’t count because they need the recipient to have the same application.
A text is 160 bytes and ignoring “free” texts (which in reality you just pay up front for), generally cost 10p-12p to send. So 160KB costs a thousand and twenty four texts messages, or about ten thousand pence (or if you prefer, a hundred quid). 160MB is costs 1,024 times that again, etc etc.
I realize this, but the thing is, Im saying I /have/ paid for them. Essentially ive made a bulk order for them + mins + data. Its true that they cost an extortionate amount when you go outside the limit. I was spending nearly £40/month before i got a contract.
The only differentiating factor between plans though is the amount of minutes/texts/data – if I pay £10 a month I get very few, if I pay £30 a month I get thousands of each.
A gigabyte would take over 6 million texts, which even an unlimited plan wouldn’t get you (fair use policy and all). On your £8 a month plan you can only send 156KB of data via text
It is £8 when you take off the cost of the phone
but i do see your point, its just i rather thought the article didnt take in to account the whole picture
I think that’s a bit unfair, he did acknowledge it was a simple comparison. Plus I think it’s fairly obvious that they’re getting their cost/text from a PAYG plan rather than a contract which normally come up as Unlimited