Consumers are being scammed when it comes to cell phone text messaging rates, cell phone carries incur virtually no costs when customers send text messages, yet text-messaging rates have doubled over the past several years. The reason carriers are able to get away with charging higher-than-necessary prices for their SMS text message service is that most people are unaware of what it actually costs to send a text message. Coupled with wireless operators' practice of hiding their text message costs from public view, it makes sense that most people are apt to pay whatever the carrier wants. It costs a carrier virtually nothing to ferry that 160-character text message across its network and onto your friend's handset. SMS text messages are not sent alongside voice or even data traffic. Rather, they are sent down a reserved portion of the spectrum known as the "control channel." The control channel is used to coordinate network operations, and takes up the same amount of bandwidth regardless of traffic volume.

The bottom line is that text messaging is virtually a cost-free proposition for cell phone carriers. Moreover, with text messaging up 32 percent since 2007, it is obviously a very lucrative business for these companies. Even when customers opt to purchase unlimited messaging plans - which cell phone carries claim can lower costs to as little as a penny a message - the companies still stand to make a large profit.

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