I’ve always had the $30 unlimited family text plan with our iPhones, I’ve switched to using SMS replacement apps with my most frequently texted contacts. I used to average about 700 messages a month in the plan, but the past several months I’ve gone under 200. Paying $30 a month for SMS is pretty ridiculous, worse yet, when I text between my 2 lines in my family plan, it counts on each line, while it’s free to actually place a voice call to any AT&T subscribers. I believe voice calling uses more network resource than an SMS.
So this Monday I downgraded the family text plan to the 200 messages plan for $5, going from $30 to $10 total. Here are the apps I use to replace SMS, there are many more, but these 2 use your existing mobile number as your identifier, which makes them real SMS replacements and allows easy contacts discovery.
In addition, I’m a huge BeejiveIM user, it’s the best IM app and definitely worth the $10. I’ve also dialed down my SMS from Twitter with push notifications from Boxcar and the Twitter app. Boxcar notifications consistently arrive before Twitter SMS when I had both turned on.
Looks like AT&T will be discontinuing the $5 SMS plan, so if you’ve been procrastinating to downgrade, now is the time to do it.
Leaked: New ATT text messaging plans in preparation for Verizon iPhone | Gear Live.