Hacker News Reader

Comment by eloisant | Hacker News Reader

Frankly, I'd rather have a messaging system controlled by carriers but distributed among all of them (like SMS and RCS) than a messaging system fully controlled by a single company like Whatsapp, Telegram, Allo, iMessages and so on.

I can still switch carriers and be able to communicate with my friends.

The only issue I have with SMS is that it costs money when I'm not in my home country.

View on HN

> Frankly, I'd rather have a messaging system controlled by carriers but distributed among all of them (like SMS and RCS) than a messaging system fully controlled by a single company like Whatsapp, Telegram, Allo, iMessages and so on.

I think that's true in general, but I don't mind Signal because it's a nonprofit and pushing the technology forward.

Re. being able to switch carriers and still communicate, what happens when you travel and (temporarily) get a local SIM? Are you suddenly messaging all your existing contacts from an unrecognized foreign number "Hi, it's John, this is my temporary Thai number..." and then relying on that message not getting binned by some spam algorithm? What prevents carriers from charging extra for RCS messages originating abroad?

In France we get to keep our phone number when we switch operators.

Travel is an issue yes, but I think it's worth it to have a truly decentralized system.

At a conceptual level, it does have many advantages. For one thing, it's just part of your phone, you never have to install anything. You don't have to market it to anyone, it just automagically rolls out through the world as people buy new devices and carriers adopt it.

But I'm concerned that the intransigence of carriers, especially those that operate in non-competitive environments, will get in the way of rolling it out properly and effectively.

RCS should be backwards compatible, so if the carrier is blocking it, the users simply see a normal SMS message.

> what happens when you travel and (temporarily) get a local SIM?

The real fix would be sensible roaming charges so you don't need to.

That would seem to be less likely than getting every carrier to implement RCS.

It happened in the US long ago for the most part. I often use a tower that is run by someone other than my carrier, but everything just works. This has been the case so long that I can't recall when the last time anyone I know had to think about roaming.

More recently (since 2015) I get free text and data (but not voice) in more than 100 countries around the world. Some countries include voice as well. In short it is coming, if you don't have it ask your carrier why. (odds are it is regulations so get after your representatives and tell them to stop it or you will vote for someone who will)

Why are you changing your number just because you switch carriers?

Because in my example you're traveling to a different country.

Isn't it the same with Whatsapp, Telegram, Signal, etc.? Those are all tied to your phone number.

With Telegram you can change the phone number and keep all the messages and contacts. It's also possible with Whatsapp, but with some limitations.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com