Both Bell Mobility and Telus Mobility have announced that customers will be charged new fees to receive text messages starting in August. Today, both the companies offer free incoming SMS (as does Rogers which will continue to offer free incoming text messages for now).
Telus blamed the growth in SMS popularity with some 45.3 million text messages being sent every day according to the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association. According to a Telus spokesperson: “This volume places tremendous demands on our network and we can’t afford to provide this service for free any more.”
Bell simply pointed out that most carriers now charged for incoming SMS and that they were aligning themselves with market realities.
For someone without an SMS option in their service plan, both companies will charge ¢15 for each incoming message.
The new fees kick in on August 8th for Bell and August 24th for Telus.