Which carrier does this? I literally cannot think of one, even down to the bare-minimum $15/mo plans from, say, Virgin Mobile. It strikes me as one of those situations that screams "You're being scammed." Is this some flyover local carrier that I'm not aware of (I hear it complained about all the time), or is it some archaic and masochistic plan that people bend themselves over backward to whip themselves with?

Or is it simply that those are the plans that don't offer text messaging? In which case, situations like spamming black pages at remote fax machines come to mind. And all the legal ramifications involved.

Yes, you are being scammed, and all US carriers charge for incoming text messages.

AT&T: $0.20 per SMS or $0.30 per MMS, both ways. or text plan for unlimited messages for an additional $20/month

http://www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=52588&cv=820#fbi...

Verizon: $0.20 per SMS or $0.25 per MMS, both ways. or text plans an additional $5-$20/month, no unlimited option.

http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/store/planMessagingOverla...

Sprint: $0.20 per SMS or $0.25 per MMS, both ways. or text plans an additional $5-$20/month, with $20/month being unlimited.

http://www.sprint.com/landings/attachables/

T-Mobile: $0.20 per SMS or MMS, both ways. I think all current plans have unlimited text though, not sure.

http://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-2825

I remember getting unlimited texting for $5 a month from Verizon circa 2005, and it was $0.10 per text without the plan. Why are phone plans just getting worse...

Here's Consumer Reports complaining about this in 2008:

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/aboutus/mission/viewpoint...

As someone who is not involved in the industry, it seems weird that this issue hasn't been resolved by the market yet. The only major downside I can see to an individual carrier offering a pay to send plan is that unless they can get other carriers on board, they risk loosing when they interface with the other networks. However, they already have to deal with carriers in other countries (where from reading comments here, it sounds like do use a pay to send model).

The could start by introducing pay-to-send within their own network. If it gets traction, other carriers may follow suit.

US carriers are the only ones that do this. Such a shame.