We want Poll Everywhere to be as accessible and pervasive as possible; while we have achieved this goal we think we can be more accessible if the costs of SMS come down. Recently Congress has started to weigh in on the issue.

“Some industry experts contend that these increased rates do not appear to be justified by any increases in the costs associated with text messaging services, but may instead be a reflection of a decrease in competition, and an increase in market power, among your four companies,” Kohl said in the letter.

We agree. While some of our customers have to pay 20 cents to their carrier per SMS message, we also have to pay to send and receive those text messages on our end so the costs are essentially two-fold.