Text messages are nice and convenient, a quick means of communicating simple messages instantly. At 10 to 15 cents a pop, text messages turn out to cost at least 4 times more than sending the same amount of data from the Hubble Space Telescope. That’s a telescope thousands of miles away in space folks, so keep in mind the “value” you receive when you pay 15 cents to say “Hey what’s up?” to someone you met once at a party a few years back. Dr. Nigel Bannister is the fellow you should thank for finding out this information, though what inspired him to investigate text messaging and compare it to data from the Hubble Space Telescope escapes us, but it proves just how much mobile phone carriers gouge consumers who don’t get the “unlimited texting plan” or other bulk discount.

According to Dr. Bannister, a text messages maximum size is 140 bytes, which adds up to 7490 text messages per megabyte. If you conservatively estimate each text at 10 cents per message (which is less than many American carriers), you have a total of $749 to send one MB of data.

NASA told Dr. Bannister that it cost just under 9 pounds, or just under 20 dollars to send a megabyte of data from the Hubble Space Telescope to earth. Even taking into account the cost of specialized ground stations and labor costs, the price of a MB of data from the Hubble Space Telescope is anywhere from $20 to $180, still at least 4 times cheaper than 1 MB of text messages! ($749)

This shows you that sending high resolution photos from Hubble probably costs NASA a pretty sizable chunk of change, but also shows you how ridiculous the mobile phone text rates are. Especially considering people are still charged the rate for receiving texts too, meaning a mobile phone company could theoretically make .20 to .30 per text message, for minuscule amounts of data.

If the pricing of text messages interests you, check out this article on the “true price” of SMS messages, revealing in a different light how expensive they really are.

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