Why can my son text if he has used all of his data?

[Marilyn10301]

I have unlimited calling and texting.

On Family Base I limited my son's line to 15 GB.  An agent told me that after he is out of data, he could still text and call, but his texts are undeliverable...why is that?

[rcschnoor]

What phone does your son have. What app does he use to text?

If your son has an iPhone AND he is subscribed to iMessage, any "text" sent as an iMessage would be undeliverable unless he was on wifi since THAT is not a text. It is an iMessage, which bypasses the SMS/MMS infrastructure and instead uses Apple's servers. This type of "text" would need to be sent via wifi if your son has used all of his data.

[Marilyn10301]

I got it. Thank you

[Weth]

I wonder if there is an association between those that cannot budget data (especially 15 GB) over the course of a month and future inability to budget money?

[Marilyn10301]

Yes, definitely something to think about.

But in all fairness to him, we've moved and didn't have wifi for a few weeks.

[SuzyQ · Accepted solution]

If he is sending group messages, or picture messages, or iMessages, or any other message app that uses data, then the messages will not send. They are using DATA.  Regular text messages using simple SMS should work. 

[Marilyn10301]

Thank you so much. I understand