I disagree. I'm pretty sure having to pay extra for SMS and limits on the number of messages were things of the distant past before WhatsApp started.
That's why (almost) everybody in Europe uses WhatsApp. I use SMS _only_ to receive 2FA codes.
I think whatsapp is great for having short conversations with family over seas. Text messaging is expensive and calling/Skype would be overkill for small questions
I don't like SMS, but WhatsApp gets the same stuff wrong (tying it to an arbitrary hard-to-remember phone number, no desktop client, etc...).
[1]: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&pr... (those eights are supposed to be ticks, not the number of messages)
The why is quite obvious, instead of upping the price on the per-minute/-sms charges on prepaid, they disabled it to force you to buy a monthly subscription instead. For me, this means that my phone does not work anywhere in EU anymore except Sweden and France (and I have two SIMs) unless I increase my phone spending with about 2000% (yes, I do not use my phone much), I cannot change the contracts because I cannot live in two countries at once [#], and will most likely lose the number I have had for over 20 years.
Even so, if I change to a monthly subscription they are allowed to cancel my contract if I "misuse" the new roaming rules, which I will because I want to keep my Swedish number but I will not live there for several more years (at least).
The new roaming rules only helps tourists (although I believe that the monthly fees have gone up all over EU since the transition to "roaming free" rules, so only the service providers are gaining anything on the transition). For people who have to be mobile across the EU it is a total nightmare. This has made me very angry (perhaps unproportionately so), and it is my opinion that the EU MPs that put forth this law should be ashamed and this is a complete failure.
[#] I can change it in France, since I live here, but I'm moving away from here soon, so why bother, but not to Sweden. So I have to break some country's law by saying I move back to Sweden when I don't, change my contract, move to where I actually am, and then lose my number anyway at 1000% the cost of my old card. And when I move, since this is not to France nor Sweden, but still in the EU, my phone will not work at all moving there! All things you have to do when moving to a new country I have to manage without a phone now.
It spread like fire with Europeans being able to text across countries. Texting was free within country, but between was expensive.
Messaging inside the EU costs as much as messaging inside one's own country now but this is very recent. Messaging between other countries can cost up to 2 Euro per message. Not a typo. One wonders if it is to empty people accounts. I put my phone in airplane mode whenever I'm outside the EU and use Wi-Fi to call and text.