Apple AOL partner up for free iPhone 3G SMS
By Leslie Poston
One Apple user found a nice work around for the pesky and expensive SMS fees for people using AT&T and the iPhone. It seems that the exorbitant expense of the data plan motivated him o try a few new options.
Of course, even after you set yourself up for free SMS messaging using this simple method, you should make sure to tell you friends how to do it as well. This is so that they don’t get hit by hefty SMS fees on their end.
in order to take advantage of free SMS, you will need an AOL instant message account if you don’t already have one. You then simply download the AOl iPhone 2.0 client to your iPhone or iPhone 3G.
Once you have it on your phone you can add people to your contacts by phone number, just like you can on AOL’s desktop instant message client. Then you can message them. Using the AOL service is free on your end, and can be free on theirs as well if they also grab the client.
If you don’t have an iPhone yet this trick also works to circumvent SMS charges on any phone that can run the AOL mobile IM client. All it takes is a simple download of, or activation of, the service on your phone to get the advantage of free messaging via AOL instant message.
The person who first published this handy and simple trick was Jeff Carlson. It’s a blessing for iPhone 3G and iPod Touch users who are looking at SMS fees of $.20 per message or $5 to $30 per month on top of their existing plans. It should be noted that this trick may not work outside of the United States (if it does work where you are, let us know in the comments).
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