So, I just got a cell phone for the first time. I held out for 6 years; almost unheard of for an IT guy and student. Ended up with a little Samsung slider phone, the t429, which I’m growing to like: it’s small, lightweight, has easy-to-feel buttons, and a large screen. I do have one complaint, however.

I don’t really need text messaging. I have email and IM already, and both are more convenient for actually writing something down. However, people my age are obsessed with it. I got a text within 2 hours of getting the phone out of the box, and made the unpleasant discovery that receiving a 36-byte message cost me fifteen cents! Fifteen cents for something I didn’t even ask for! If I had a chance to reject it, as you can with calls, that’d be fine, but apparently that’s not an option. You just pay whenever someone else decides to send one to you.

I talked to my friends, who said their providers let you opt out of receiving text messages; great, since it’s a service I didn’t sign up for or want in the first place. However, T-Mobile doesn’t let you opt-out, claiming their software isn’t smart enough to do that. I can block texts sent as email, which I guess is a big problem thanks to advertising, but I can’t keep my friends from costing me money by accident. The network obviously knows what kind of plan I have, as it bills me for service instantly. Why can’t it also check to see if I don’t want the messages in the first place?