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They could get you to bid against the spammers, perhaps. If somebody will pay $1 to send you a message, maybe you'll pay $1.10 not to receive it :)

But if they feel their message is THAT important, perhaps they'd then pay $1.20 to ensure you get it...

That seems a bit alarmist. Someone who pays 20$ can have your phone beeping 20 times. That's a lot of money to pay for a mild annoyance.

The article says that at the moment (realizing that this is still very early), users are limited to one message a week. I imagine that this will rise, but if they keep a relatively low limit on the amount you can send, I should think that spamming would be infeasible.

It's also (again, currently) "not available to Brands."

> Just great - so someone who wants to spend $20 can have my phone beeping away?

I can already do this by paying $20 to upgrade to an unlimited SMS plan on my phone.

That's basically SMS in India in a nutshell from my understanding. Except I believe there's a third level allowing SMS spam.