Free US texting will cause spam; kill everything; blow up world etc

CBS carries this report of a rather direct politician in the States arguing that free texting for all American consumers would be a catastrophic move.

Allowing consumers to send text messages at no cost could lead to crashed mobile phone networks and a flood of unwanted promotional text messages, a lawmaker said on Monday.

Catanduanes Rep. Joseph Santiago, chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Information and Communications Technology, said removing the charges for SMS (short messaging service) would only swamp networks with junk messages that could eventually lead to recurring system crashes.

He warned that once texting is free the subscribers will “surely get unwelcome messages every minute, even during our sleep.”

Obviously the networks need to keep the lights on. I think the move to unlimited texting packages is perfectly fine. No cost? Well, … I wonder. I don’t think tha’ts the way to go.

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Ewan is Founder and Editor of Mobile Industry Review. He writes about a wide variety of industry issues and is usually active on Twitter most days. You can read more about him or reach him with these details.

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  • Steve

    So does removing SMS charges automatically permit SPAMmers to mine mobile phone numbers and 'advertise' at us willy-nilly?

    If so, then why not have some sense and change the law in advance to STOP that? Oh … because the US governent is terrified of standing in the way of any sort of trade or advertising, no matter how shady.

    <sheesh>

  • http://whatleydude.vox.com James Whatley

    How about …. paying to SEND SMS?!

    I know it sounds crazy…

  • njar

    hmm isn't this guy a Filipino politician?
    The united states of the philipines perhaps ;)

  • http://www.mobileindustryreview.com smstextnews

    you might have a point njar….

  • http://www.mobileindustryreview.com Ewan @ MIR

    you might have a point njar….

  • http://whatleydude.com James Whatley

    How about …. paying to SEND SMS?!

    I know it sounds crazy…

  • njar

    hmm isn't this guy a Filipino politician?
    The united states of the philipines perhaps ;)

  • http://www.mobileindustryreview.com Ewan

    you might have a point njar….

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