Are mobile phones worth more than home broadband?

Were text messages ever cheap? iPhone users already pay a $30 monthly fee for unlimited data use, and I guess most of them are paying the $20 monthly fee as well.

This Monday I started sending my “direct messages” from Twitter to my cell phone.  Today I had to stop because I saw how much money it would cost to keep it up.  It looks like I’m paying twenty cents per text, which is twice what I remembered it being.  Worse, the unlimited message plan from ATT is $20/month, and I thought it was something like five or six dollars when I last checked.  That’s going to be $100+ for unlimited voice, data, and messaging for a single phone! I pay far less for my home service, but I am not sure it’s fair to compare the two.

I asked on Twitter if anyone was paying the $20 fee for unlimited messaging and two people quickly responded in the affirmative.  I know some folks run small businesses and probably need to be available 24/7, but I just can’t justify it for my personal use or my job.  I still do most of my online work at home where we have a $40 monthly DSL connection or at the office where we have a shared business connection.

Yes, we pay $20 a month for unlimited messaging.

Is ubiquitous wireless connectivity worth $100 per person per month for you? Maybe it’s worth that much for me too and I just don’t know because I haven’t ever experienced it.  I know plenty of iPhone users who swear by their devices and tell stories of emergent experiences like a barcode scanner with real time price matching and online shopping.

What does your connectivity spending look like?  Are you spending more on a phone than on home broadband?  Do you even have a home phone?  Maybe you’re tethering your smartphone.  Whatever you do, I’d love to hear comments from more people on this aspect of modern communication.