We've frequently discussed how SMS/MMS services are a cash cow for wireless carriers, the costs being marginally insane when compared to the actual bandwidth consumed. The New York Times has an interesting article on the high costs of text messages, 3.3 trillion of which are expected to be sent in 2009. With most carriers now charging twenty cents per message bi-directionally for each message, they've attracted the attention of some lawmakers, who've begun to inquire how much the services actually cost to deliver. While carriers try their best to keep this hidden, the Times notes that once carriers have storage covered, the costs to deliver small 140 byte messages is virtually nothing. Of course the market dictates what consumers will pay, and many consumers simply keep paying.