AT&T announced new messaging plans that support international users. If you’re a big traveler, the benefits of paying for one of these monthly plans is the considerable savings.
Previously, to send a single text message from one country to another, AT&T charged $0.50. If it included multimedia, it was a whole $1.30 – not cost-effective. Global Messaging 50 was also available for $10.
These new plans, while not inexpensive by any means, will keep a little extra money in your pocket. The first plan is Global Messaging 200, offering 200 international messages for $30 per month. Global Messaging 500 provides 500 international messages for $50 per month. AT&T notes that on the Global Messaging 200 plan, a single message is just $0.15, and this time that is regardless of any media included in the message.
Additionally, these plans only allow users to send that amount of messages – not received. This could be an advantage and disadvantage. On the bright side, that technically means if you get messages sent to you, they don’t count toward the amount you can send per month. On the dark, evil side, who knows just how much an incoming message will cost on top of the plan?
AT&T says they introduced these plans to provide for their international travelers, who up until this point, have not had a reasonable solution for messaging overseas. In a survey conducted for people frequently bouncing in and out of countries, 65 percent of respondents indicated they use text messaging to communicate while they are away. 47 percent said they use picture and video messaging as well.
[via AT&T]