Does anyone else feel like $10 for 500 texts is usury? One minute of a voice call produces more data then 500 texts. Shouldn't we be charged by bandwidth usage?

My understanding is that texts use no network traffic to send and receive. They are transmitted on a communication channel that is set aside for the phone to keep in touch with the tower.

Is there a way to totally turn off texts on your phone?

Check out this link to get an idea of how bad we are being ripped off.

http://gthing.net/the-true-price-of-sms-messages

I understand this is a way for them to make gobs of money without using the network, but it isn't right. Its just not right. Cell phones bills are so high already, do I really need to be charged $10 a month when I bought an UNLIMITED data plan for $30??? Isn't a text data????