'Dragon' unveils flat-fee text service: "Targeted at 16-25 year olds, Hotxt offers punters the chance to send as many texts as they like for just £1 a week. The catch is that this inclusive price is subject to network data charges and texts to people not on the Hotxt network cost more."

This is by no means the only one of these services out there now. The value-driven pricing of SMS compared to per-megabyte pricing of data clearly creates an opportunity for these services; the big question in my mind is how successfully can these kinds of businesses tug users away from SMS, under the noses of the operators?