AT&T Reaches Out To International Text Messagers

Over the last few years, I’ve sent a lot of text messages to friends, family and colleagues abroad. The reason is obvious — the cost of international texting is lower than placing international calls, so it’s a great way to communicate. The major cell phone carriers are working on providing data plans specifically for customers like me, who do a lot of international messaging, and, this summer, AT&T is launching theirs.

If you’re like me, one of AT&T’s new international SMS packages – as an add-on to any existing cell phone plan — could cut your international text messaging costs in half. The new option is $9.99 per month for one-hundred international text messages, essentially slicing the cost per message from twenty cents to ten.

Even though pictures and video messages are not included in the package, the majority of data I send internationally will be covered with the one-hundred outgoing messages included in AT&T’s international text message package. That is, as long as I can keep my average to about three texts a day…