Yes, its true! SMSs are perhaps the most expensive form of communication available today! Although Reliance is set to make it much cheaper.
That small 160 character message takes only 140 bytes, and costs anywhere between 25 paise to Rs. 1 to send, making it cost anywhere between Rs. 1800 and Rs. 7500 per MB! That is approximately the cost of sending messages to Hubble Space telescope. New plans introduced by Reliance though, stand to make SMSs much cheaper.
For both post-paid and pre-paid Reliance mobile subscribers, there is a new plan, which at a monthly cost of Rs. 11, will allow you to send messages at 1p per SMS. New unlimited plans allow pre-paid subscribers to send unlimited free messages in a day, with a daily rental of Rs. 1, although unlimited here is still limited by 15,000 messages a month which seems reasonable enough. The same unlimited plan is available at a mothly rental of Rs. 25 for post-paid customers.
Now for once it is easy to decide whether to send that SMS to your loved one, or get awesome shots of Jupiter from Hubble.