Text this!

Bell and Telus cellphone customers will be seeing a new fee on incoming text messages. The cost to customers is 15 cents per incoming text message as of August. Receiving text messages used to be free.

The new charge has sparked outrage, with customers saying they can't control who sends them messages, especially when spammers obtain their cell number or retailers send them unsolicited messages. Company spokespersons claim that customers would not be charged for 'spam' messages. Which brings up an interesting point. If the cell phone provider is able to tell which messages are spam........... then we should be able to OPT OUT OF RECEIVING THEM!

Compared to the rest of the world, Canada has lagged behind in adopting the use of text messaging on a per capita basis. Messaging fees have typically been blamed for the lack of adoption of the service. These new fees likely won't help.

Rogers says it has no plans to institute such a fee. But Bell and Telus charge a penalty if customers break their contracts, which works out to $20 for every month remaining on the contract up to $400 - so good luck switching providers.