Seems I've been getting some visitors wondering about how much it costs to send and receive text messages between cell phones in Canada.

So, here are the details:

There is no "long-distance charge" for text messages sent or received in Canada, so even though you might have to pay long distance charges to RECEIVE a call OUTSIDE of your home area, there is no such charge on text messages. The same applies for sending text messages from OUTSIDE of your home area.

Of course, if you are on a monthly plan, there are text message plans where you can get a bucket or minutes at some price, but I'm going to go over charges for regular users that are on prepaid or on a monthly plan without a text message bundle/package.

Rogers Text Message Charges:

Rogers Wireless charges 15 cents for each incoming text message for those without message plans as of July 7. Each outgoing text will cost you 15 cents from within Canada to a Canadian cell phone. Rogers did at least hold out for 9 months after Telus and Bell implemented their charges.

Fido Text Messaging Charge:

Again, no charge for receiving a text/SMS message while in Canada (still true as of Sept 2009). Each text you send will cost you 15 cents per person you send it to (so, sending the same message to 10 people will cost you $1.50). Also, interestingly, Fido does have some "plans" that you can add to your prepaid account for things like 100 texts/day for $0.50/day (but you have to add such a thing in advance, it's not like a maximum charge).

Telus Text Messaging: Pay to Both Send AND Receive Texts

Telus charges, again, the standard 15 cents per message sent. But they ALSO charge you 15 cents per message received. This is unlike Fido. Now, if you have a monthly plan, like the "Your Choice 25", you still pay the same amount to send and receive texts. Now, their "Messaging 250" for $5/month add-on plan says "send up to 250 text, picture or video messages and receive unlimited incoming text, picture or video messages.*" Which makes me wonder, are they still going to charge you 15 cents / message to receive a text? Sounds awfully like it.

So, in total, for a text sent from one Telus phone to another Telus phone, they're making 30 cents. And let me tell you, text messages account for about 0% of the load on a cell phone network, because they're only sent/received when there's unused capacity on the network.

Bell Mobility Messaging: Again, Pay to Send AND Receive Texts

I thought Bell was just like Telus. I think their cell phone networks are actually tightly connected, with Bell users using Telus towers when going west, and Bell users using Telus when going east. They charge 15 cents per message sent. But on their Prepaid prices page, they make no mention about charging for incoming/received messages, so maybe they're not doing it? I thought they were... Ah yes, if you look on this page, it does indeed say that with no plan, you pay to both send and receive texts with Bell Mobility cell phones.Sneaky sneaky people!!!

So, what if you do get a text messaging plan? Well, if it's a monthly plan and you get one of their text messaging add-ons, received texts are free. BUT, if you have a prepaid phone, and get one of their text-messaging add-ons, both your sent AND RECEIVED messages get deducted from your bucket of texts.

General Canadian Text Messaging Charges and Such:

Receiving or sending a text from outside Canada is always going to cost you more. As well, there are texts, like premium ones and such that you will pay for, this article was merely going over plain one Canadian cell phone to another Canadian cell phone texts.