Twitter: no outbound SMS for Canada
p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- “As regular readers know,” posts MG Siegler on VentureBeat, “I hate SMS (text messaging). It’s not the idea or technology that I hate, it’s just the ridiculous costs associated with it. Why should I pay AT&T $15 a month for unlimited text messages (tiny amounts of data) when I already pay $30 a month for ‘unlimited’ data?
“So in some ways I’m happy that more people’s hatred for the service will grow today with the news that Twitter is ending outbound SMS updates in Canada.”
What’s that, you say?
“Unexpected changes in our billing have forced us into a difficult situation with our Canadian SMS service,” says Twitter, going on »»»
We can`t afford to support this service given our current arrangement with our providers (where costs have been doubling for the past several months.) As a result, effective today we are no longer delivering outbound SMS over our Canadian shortcode (21212).
The ability to update Twitter over SMS will still be supported over 21212. But we know that this is only part of the experience and we want to make Twitter work in the way folks want regardless of where they live.
There is a realistic, scalable SMS solution for Canada (and the rest of the world.) We`re working on that and will post more details on the Twitter blog as we make progress.
Says Jesse Brown on CBC’s Search Engine:
- Last week the CRTC sided with Bell against a group of small Internet Service Providers who want to offer their customers unthrottled connections where what they download is their own business and not subject to interference.
- In last week`s throne speech the Conservative government renewed their intention to modernize Canadian copyright law. Their effort to do so last session was Bill C-61, a woefully unbalanced and retrograde piece of legislation that led to the greatest citizen backlash to any proposed bill in recent memory. Yet there has been no indication from new Industry Minister Tony Clement that a much-needed public consultation will take place. The best he has offered is the possibility of a slightly different version of the bill.
- Twitter has just announced that they are killing outbound SMS messaging in Canada due to exorbitant and constant rate hikes from Canadian cell providers (former Industry Minister Jim Prentice vowed to get tough on SMS price gouging, then backpeddled). Cell phone rates in Canada are among the highest in the world, and the result is that mobile penetration is pathetically low and that emerging new cultural platforms like Twitter are being hobbled.
This growing list of backwards policies is already creating a sense of digital isolation: Canadians can`t stream the videos Americans stream, download the files Americans download, remix the media Americans remix, or tweet the way Americans tweet.
With the election of Barack Obama, “digital culture in the U.S. hit a tipping point, where a robust online public sphere proved itself capable of changing the world,” Brown notes, adding:
“Meanwhile, here in Canada we’re approaching our own tipping point, where a series of ignorances and capitulations threaten to turn our country into a digital ghetto.”
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VentureBeat – Twitter kills Canadian SMS updates. Can the U.S. be far behind?, November 26, 2008
Search Engine – Is Canada becoming a digital ghetto?, November 26, 2008
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November 28th, 2008 at 12:19 am
Not to sound a plugger, but IMO Shaw is the best internet company to go with at the moment. While they do throttle your upload rate, it’s not crippling to normal use, although they do offer an (somewhat) upgraded package if you need (a little) more. Their Tech support is first rate, and hopefully the execs will know a good thing when they see it and move in on Bell and Rogers customers while they are distracted screwing people over.
November 28th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
And just think! this is the country with the HIGHEST DATA RATES IN THE WORLD!
As for the “doubling cost of text messages”….
That led me to two carriers: Telus, and Rogers.
Telus now charges for incoming messages, rogers does not.
Twitter is with rogers?