Iphone charges at 35p for 160+ character texts and group texts

[Anonymous]

I've just been sent a bill for £52 for a group text that my daughter sent on her ipHone 4. Having phoned o2 it would appear that the following are considered as MMS and not SMS and charged at 35p:

1) Group texts (4+ people)

2) Texts more than 160 characters. This is ridiculous given that the contract I signed up for was for "Unlimited texts and phone calls" and I was not made aware of this 'scam'.

3) The expected texts with images etc.

O2 have cancelled £50 of the £52 bill, but the contract remains as it is. Is there any way around this? My daughter now has a character count on her texts, but 160 is small and only 4-5 lines. This is worse than her previous simplicity contract!

[Liquid]

SMS is still defined as up to 160 characters.(used to be lower). Only way around this is to not send group texts and to use iMessage where possible.

You were lucky they reduced your bill:)

It's not a scam promise.

[perksie]

Images in texts make them MMS which were included in some older packages.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

A standard SMS (text) by definition is a 160-character message. Most phones will let you write more than this, and split into 2/3/4/5 seperate texts for sending purposes (Nokias etc). Some phones will turn it into an MMS (picture message) - Samsung/Apple for example).

It differs on a phone-by-phone basis, and isn't the network's fault that it happens.

Kudos to them for giving you a reduction on your bill, wouldn't expect them to do it for you again in future though so be careful.

[Anonymous]

It's normal & is right to pay the amount. do you have any inclusive text allowance, more than one lot of 160 will be classed as a group text or mms so unless you use Imessage this what is chargeable & right

[Anonymous]

Surely a group text should be included in unlimited texts what does it matter how many people you send it to if its unlimited. Pictures yes obviously are mms but texts are texts no matter which way you look at it

[Liquid]

Agreed. It's mainly down to the phone not O2.

[Anonymous]

My daughter has the same problem, she has unlimited texts but when she sent the same text to 34 friends at the same time she was charged approx £8! O2 are investigating but I cant understand what the difference is in including 34 people in 1 text to sending 34 people individual texts!

I got an iphone 5 for Christmas and have been charged for sending texts (even thought I have unlimited!) but my texts were to 1 person only and had less than 50 characters! Was told to switch off imessage as sometimes it thinks texts are MMS! Absolutely ridiculous that im worried about sending texts incase it starts to incorrectly charge me 30p for each one! Feel like sending the thing back and going back to my Blackberry!

[Liquid]

Unfortunatly apple are just as much to blame with iOS in this problem.

Nokia and android both split long txts or group messaging into single txts and send them in sequence. iOS is lazy and just sends it as it is hence everything being converted to mms.

[Anonymous]

The usual advice is to turn off the MMS option in the iPhones settings and refrain from using the group function in messages.