A new update for the Facebook Messaging app for iOS devices now allows users to place voice calls to people in their friend list without using plan minutes (though you’ll of course still consume cellular data). The company has been testing the functionality in Canada since early this month, and is now deploying the feature to U.S. users starting today. It’s services like this one that will inevitably erode wireless carrier SMS and voice revenues, [...]

As the United States government continues its relentless expansion of domestic surveillance capabilities, the latest effort is focuses on forcing wireless carriers to retain text message logs for at least two years. For much of the last decade the U.S. government has been trying to force data retention requirements on ISPs, most frequently under the banner of fighting child pornography. That’s something that some folks (like Sonic.net CEO Dane Jasper) has argued will create huge [...]

There has been no limit to the number of folks that have pointed out that SMS is an obnoxious and bloated cash cow, carriers charging a fortune for a simple 160 character, 140 byte message, despite it costing them virtually nothing to send (as it travels along an always live tower control channel). That realization is usually followed by people pointing out that carriers charge this because people are stupid enough to continue paying for [...]

The wireless market is finally starting to reach its saturation point, with last quarter’s subscriber growth being the slowest in over a decade. According to a new report by Chetan Sharma consulting, last quarter saw the industry add 2.4 million subscribers, the lowest total since wireless telecommunications starting to soar in the nineties. The growth was primarily thanks to the strong postpaid subscriber growth by Verizon, while both T-Mobile and Sprint saw postpaid user declines. [...]

Sprint will no longer have to carry the lonely unlimited flag. At a time when most carriers are jacking up data prices to offset reductions in SMS and voice use, T-Mobile has apparently decided to buck the trend and will return to offering truly unlimited data. According to a T-Mobile press release, the company will be launching an unlimited data plan starting September 5 that will cost $20 a month when added to a Value [...]

Verizon recently introduced family share data plans for one reason: to jack up the price of data and prevent users from signing up for less expensive SMS and voice minute packages as SMS and voice become less popular. As an example of that obvious trend, new data released from overseas wireless operator O2 notes that making phone calls is the fifth most frequently accomplished task on most smartphones. Phone calls sit behind (in order) browsing [...]

An editorial first posted over at the Wall Street Journal recently bubbled up over at GigaOM. In it, “management consultant” Rags Srinivasan talks about how AT&T and Verizon are, like most duopolies, just pretending to compete — giving each other winks and nods when it’s time to raise prices. The latest example of course is Verizon’s new shared data plans, which jack up the price of data dramatically to offset a reduction in user voice [...]

Verizon recently launched their shared data plans to a very mixed response. Whether you save money depends on your particular households data needs, though consumer advocates say the plans simply drastically raise data prices and erode choice in order to offset a reduction in voice minute and SMS use. Add T-Mobile to the group of folks who aren’t particularly impressed with the new plans, the company taking to their blog recently to lambast the plans [...]

As voice and SMS slowly die, carriers are charging more and more for data services, knowing that voice and SMS are just data — and those steep $10 per gigabyte overages can really add up. The push toward metered billing for data has been relentless, with carriers insisting the move is “only fair.” On the other side of that equation, now that users are consuming fewer voice minutes, carriers are interested in eliminating per minute [...]

Verizon has announced that the carrier will soon be allowing users to send text messages to get emergency help from 911 services. The company’s new text-to-911 service will use Verizon’s existing CDMA SMS network for 911 text notifications, and the company plans to make the functionality available to 911 center public-service answering points, or PSAPs, starting in early 2013. “While consumers should always first try to contact a 911 center by making a voice call, [...]