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You'd have been especially confused because the new price of 30c per message seemed to be higher than the old cost of 20c.

Sure enough though, Vodafone spotted its obvious error and just a week or two later, it sent out a follow-up message advising that the cost reduction was actually a 50% increase!

Now this snafu is probably embarrassing but, as cock-ups go, not a biggie.

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What is more worrying is that they're actually charging an arm and a leg to deliver up to 160 characters of text to another mobile in these days of ultra-low-cost digital communications.

Maybe someone at Vodafone can explain why it is that I can call someone in the UK and chat for up to a whole minute (at the cost of goodness knows how many bytes in data traffic) for just 49c, yet an SMS containing just a few short words will cost 60% of that amount?

Is this nothing more than blatant profiteering?

If it costs an extra 10c to deliver less than 160 characters across the world to (say) the UK, why can I send a whole email with attachments to the same country for a fraction that price???

What's more, SMS traffic represents a much lower cost than does voice-calling.

While a voice-call must be handled in realtime, SMS packets can be sent as/when bandwidth becomes available, thus allowing otherwise dead-time to be utilised.

Hell, even regular (local) SMS traffic must be a gold-mine for Vodafone, with prepaid customers being hit 20c per message except for weekends (which are free).

Telecom has shown that the actual cost of SMS messaging is so small that they can offer up to 500 messages for $10 a month (that's just 1/10th of Vodafone's price) -- so what's the guts?

What's more, if your TXT is just a little long, most phones convert it to two separate messages and you pay $0.60 if it's going offshore.

Perhaps there's a wonderful opportunity for some smart entrepreneur here?

Set up a local SMS number that allows folks to send you messages which you then forward to an email address -- or another computer in the US/UK which then delivers them via SMS to the desired number.

With Vodafone charging 30c a hit, there's actually enough margin there to make a tiny profit.

Roll on WiFi(Max) based handsets that allow clever Kiwis (and others) to set up their own virtual mobile networks and, by way of a cooperative network, start throwing up some real competition to the current duopoly.

Can you see any justification for Vodafone's 50% price-hike -- or even the current 20c/TXT pricing?

Why haven't we (yet) seen privately created WiFi(Max) VOIP and email networks popping up around the countryside already?

If such networks do appear, will this force the price of mobile calling down far more effectively than wet bus ticket rulings by the Commerce Commission?

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