The Phone Company is always The Phone Company

The True Cost of SMS Messages Ah, the beauty of cyclical history. Once upon a time, there was Ma Bell, AT&T. The Phone Company. They owned the wires, they even owned your equipment. That's right, they owned and serviced the telephones in your home. Then, little by little, the Courts began telling AT&T "No." Then, AT&T was suddenly broken up, which gave birth to the Baby Bells, Cellular Phones, modems, the Internet as we know it, etc. Meanwhile, the Baby Bells have been buying each other. The Wireless telcos have been buying each other. Notice when AT&T became AT&T again, the price of an SMS message went up? They're the largest carrier. Sprint has bought Nextel, and their service is worse than it was before. The FCC recently started a new spectrum auction. Let's see who wins.