Messaging apps costing carriers billions

Previously, the normal method for getting in touch with one another is through SMS but now, with everyone using a smartphone with data plans, that might not be the case anymore. This is because now, applications such as Whatsapp or BlackBerry Messenger rules over SMS as these are cheaper if not free as compared with SMS.

Whatsapp has been highly successful as it processes billions of text messages in a day. In fact, its cross platform nature makes it possible for users of all type of smartphones to contact with each other without a platform barrier such as those present in iMessage or BBM. However, these applications are taxing the carriers greatly.

In fact, through a study done by a firm called Ovum, roughly more than $13.9 billion is lost through the revenue from SMS. The reason behind this is due to these social messaging applications which are easier and cheaper to use. In fact, a Wi-Fi or a data plan is all that is needed for it to work. In the year 2010, a same study was done but the figure at that time was around $8.7 billion. Nevertheless, there isn’t much that these carriers can do as they have no power over what is installed in the user’s smartphones.