Cell Networks Lost $13.9 Billion to Social Media Apps in 2011

Proving yet again that the Internet offers free alternatives for things one used to have to pay for (see: the newspaper), a new report today says that cell phone networks lost $13.9 billion worth of revenue to free social media apps in 2011. These include services like Facebook Chat, BlackBerry's ever-popular internal messaging system, and independent services like WhatsApp. (Apple's newish iMessage system -- part of iOS 5, released last year -- wasn't mentioned.) These services are "alternative" to SMS, short for "short messaging system," the standard texting system that folks have <3-ed for years (as have the networks selling texting plans). But analysts at the firm Ovum say that networks have taken that 10-figure hit as people switch to these newer, fee-free messaging systems.