Word: celles
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...course, GPS tracking systems have existed for years - they are used every day to keep tabs on valuable cargo, rental cars, and even parolees who are shackled to GPS-enabled ankle bracelets. Cell phones are routinely embedded with GPS chips too, and can communicate their location via cellular networks. (The Helio Ocean phone, for example, has a "Buddy Beacon" feature that lets you map your friends' precise whereabouts on your handset.) Personal navigation units could easily incorporate the same features, but device makers say there's little demand. "Most consumers are just looking to get from Point A to Point...
...technical standpoint, flashy digital cameras and color iPods have set the bar so high for consumer gadgetry that spending, on average, 11 cents to send each text-only message seems absurd. The Short Message Service (SMS) protocol, a technology from the 1980s which still accounts for nearly all cell phone text messaging, has no formatting and a limit of 160 characters. Entering messages requires painstaking key pecking, and received messages can come out of order. Yet rather than dismiss it as backwards, most users see text messaging as a godsend and fail to appreciate it for the terrible...
...charge for receiving messages. All messages are charged twice, typically at a rate of 10 cents for the sender and five for the receiver, though receivers can pay as high as 25 cents. Worse, since the recipient has no choice to accept or reject an incoming message, cell phone users can be billed for receiving spam...
...addition, the price of a text message—even when using a plan—is astronomically greater than the cost to the cell phone carrier. Studies have shown that cell operators have a profit margin of about 90 percent for text messages, which is more than twice the profit for phone calls. Costs to operators are miniscule because SMS technology is over 20 years old and the network bandwidth taken up by text messages is tiny relative to a phone call. With usage increasing, the big players in the telecom industry don’t have to collude...
...what options remain for concerned consumers? Insist on making phone calls rather than send text messages when possible, and encourage friends to do the same. In addition, customers can call their cell phone operator and demand that they be able to disable or screen text messages. Eventually, operators will be forced to offer cheap text messages to keep their dissatisfied customers...