Text Message Away Messages Would be Helpful

On Friday, I’ll be completing my New Years Resolution of traveling once a month this year by heading to Mexico. Earlier today I finally got around to figuring out if my cell phone would work in the Cancun/Playa del Carmen area, and if so, how much it was going to cost me.

The good news is that AT&T says my iPhone should work just fine. The bad news is that it’s going to cost an arm and a leg to talk and text.

After learning this bit of info, I quickly put my frugal hat on and thought to myself, “I’ll just use the Web to communicate and bypass talk/text.” Not so fast. There’s a pricey charge for that as well.

Then I thought, I’ll just use my phone to take pictures when I’m out and about and a camera isn’t super convenient. This makes sense because I’ll likely have my phone on me anyway – not having a phone doesn’t sit very well with me.

But here is the problem. As soon as I turn my phone on a flood of text messages could come through costing me around $.50 each! This is where text message away messages would come in handy.

Imagine how great t would be if I could turn on an away message, which would also prompt the system to basically hold my text messages until I turn the away message off.

That would rock!

And if that won’t work, AT&T should allow the messages to be downloaded to my phone, but only charge if I choose to open a message. It just doesn’t seem right to be charged for a flood of the messages that you really can’t control.

So how about it? Can I get a “woot woot” for text message away messages?

Update: I wasn’t quite satisfied with my earlier AT&T call so I opted to call back. The first person told me something that wasn’t exactly correct, at least that’s what I was just told. Apparently you are only charged for sending text messages while out of the country. Incoming text messages are treated as normal messages. While this is good news, the away message would still be valid as it would let folks know why they aren’t receiving a response.