Friday, February 25th, 2011 at 7:16 PM EST

Guest blog: Stuart Zipper

A startling statistic (at least to me) that was released recently showed that the number of text messages (SMS or Short Message Service) sent in the U.S. has now surpassed the number of voice calls made via cellular phones.

When you consider that most carriers are charging a dime, or even 20 cents, per text message, the amount Americans are spending on texts is enormous. And if I text my wife … I pay twice, once for my phone and once for hers. Now, I can call her at no charge, but for a text message that uses a tiny fraction of the bandwidth of a voice call, I get charged – or if I have a plan, get two demerits against our monthly allowance.

Enter Phone.com. Users may not have noticed, but you can send a text directly from your Phone.com account and for no extra charge over the monthly service fee (the person receiving the message on their cell phone will still get one demerit). Interestingly, I have an AT&T account, and I can send a text message from their web site – but they charge me just as if I had sent it from my cell phone.

And since I’m still in the dark ages – with a phone where you have to push the number buttons several times to get the letter you like – typing out the text message on my PC is a joy by comparison.

Stuart Zipper is the past Senior Editor of TelecomWeb news break.