Carrier Charging Texting for iMessages

stevejobsfan0123 - Thanks for the suggestion on Windows Mobile & BBerry.

I wasn't threaten but just want share the reality of the issue for other consumers who may be researching this. I have called AT&T and Apple technical support and they both are clueless. AT&T said you sent a text so we charge you for the text. While Apple said iMessage is encrypted and I shouldn't be charge and Apple will not acknowledge the problem. I offer to send Apple a copy of my bill so they can verify but they declined.

Here's what I don't understand: iMessage is also on the iPod touch, which is Wi-Fi only and doesn't use a carrier, so obviously they are not charged for texting. It's only on the iPhone for some reason. If the carrier is charging for iMessage, then my guess is that the CARRIER is in violation of the agreement they have with Apple.

stevejobsfan0123,

I don't think there's any agreement between the carriers & Apple on iMessage. iMessage is only available recently and the agreement between AT&T and Apple would be years ago.

Paul Galati,

I think we can only control how the message is being sent out (text or iMessage) but we cannot control the incoming messages. The only way to ensure that we don't receive any text (allow iMessage only) is to remove the text option with the carrier. For example, I get texts from telemarketers and it costs me 20 cents/msg to receive their text. I can't disable this unless I disable texting completely. I can't control how they will send to me.

I have set iMessage to 'Send as SMS = Off' for 2 weeks and it appears to be working. AT&T has not charged me for the iMessages.

AT&T will give you credit for text spam and try to block it. You can use the Mark the Spot app, or forward the spam text to 7726 ("SPAM").

Hello,

Maybe the fact that you turn off the MMS message can be what forces Verizon/At&T to charge for your messages OR they can be using your access to internet (Maybe 3G?) to charge you per byte that you use when you sent the messages. But for the iMessage it was not supposed to be charged. Actually I use both, iMessage and the MMS because some of my contacts did not upgrate the software for iPhone, so I need to use both, but in any way the AT&T did not charge me for the iMessage, BUT I have an agreement that between AT&T calls and message for me are free, I just pay for the external calls and a fix price per month.

Did you try to go on a At&T store? Or did you just called/emailed them?

Are you sure about you are using iMessage?

I hope that it help something.

See if you can find something that help, maybe, in the discussion about it with AT&T:http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2011/08/18/why-is-att-charging-more-for-text-messag ing-its-afraid-of-imessage-facebook-messenger-and-huddle/

Paul Galati wrote:

...Even though I do have a texting plan, how do I completely disable the possibility of sending OR receiving a carrier based text message...

The ONLY way to block receiving SMS or MMS messages is to have them blocked by the carrier. NO phone can block the reciept of these messages. At best, all they could do would be not display them. You will still get hit by your carrier for messages sent TO you unless you have it blocked by them.

Hi Ann76

Thats great advice to block sending SMS. However I tried this and still got charged for sending imessages internationally showing as blue/ free. Im really annoyed at my carrier 02 for this. I orginally got the Iphone 4 to avoid such costs.

When I called 02 to enquire what happened, they said, both iphones have to be connected to wifi for imessages to be free

Ive tried an alteranative solution which blocking everything ine turning off SMS and MMS and this appears to block any non-imessages. So the trick may be to turn SMS/ MMS to off, when sending imessages. Then it should be ok I hope. Ive only tried this today, so far so good

However, if this an Apple software issue on imessage, then it really ought to be sorted by Apple asap.

A friend has also recommended "whatapp". Anyone used this? Any comments on if its better that Imessaging.

Thanks

gn07816 wrote:

When I called 02 to enquire what happened, they said, both iphones have to be connected to wifi for imessages to be free

This is correct, and it's not a bug. When connected by 3G, that counts against your data plan.

gn07816 wrote:

A friend has also recommended "whatapp". Anyone used this? Any comments on if its better that Imessaging.

I believe you are referring to WhatsApp. I use it, I really don't think it's anything that special. But that's just me, and a lot of people rate it highly.

I also have noticed that I am being charged by ATT for texts to my wife's and sister's iphone (all are showing up as "blue" on my phone).

HOWEVER

How does the iPhone handle texts sent from within an app - like Words with Friends? I wonder if this is what may be going on.

doug .

Hi there-- This same thing is happening to my husband and me. We got iphone 4s's in December, and our first bill had us being charged for imessages, as if they were text messages. Those were in fact imessages, because they are blue (NOT green) and even say imessage. However in 6 calls to AT&T and 3 cases being opened about this problem, their only conclusion all three times was I must be colorblind and illiterate, that there was no way they could be imessages. My husband and I are on the same account, and they could see we both have iphone 4s's and they could see that we both were getting charged for texting each other, but they just couldn't comprehend that this could be happenning with imessages. They even tried contacting apple support with no luck. I switched my settings to not send as a text message when imessages don't go through, and it seems, fingers crossed, that this is working.

This was incredibly frustrating, and I'd like info from anyone about how they were able to convince AT&T that this was a genuine problem they were having, and what the solution may be. I have a feeling that this problem is not over, so I would love that information if anyone has it.

As already stated, when an iMessage goes as an iMessage AT&T has no way of knowing it exists, as it is just data over a data connection. So there is no way AT&T can charge you for it, because they can't see it. However, if the data connection fails the iMessage will then be sent as a text, as explained in the manual.

Hi,

Obviously there is some way that AT&T can see these messages, because I am being billed for them. It may be an apple bug, as in they look like imessages, but are really being sent as SMS. I have read the manual. These things are showing up looking like blue imessages, and even say imessage, but are being billed as regular text messages by AT&T. There IS something wrong, either on AT&T's side, or apple's side.

I told you what it is; if an iMessage fails the phone sends it as an SMS. So the messages that show up as SMS really ARE SMS. That's the only possible explanation. AT&T does not know the contents of data over a 3G channel (and you really wouldn't want them to). As you have disabled the fallback to SMS and it solved the problem that is convincing evidence. You will probably also notice that some messages don't get delivered.