Why do I have unlimited picture messaging if I can't send them to anybody without my data being on?

[karlakhitee]

I don't get why I have to turn on my data every time I go to send pictures or videos to anyone. My mms is turned on, I thought unlimited picture messaging went through cell service not data? Someone enlighten me!

[NFtoBC]

That very much depends on the phone. Smart phones use data for all tasks except voice and SMS messages. "Dumb" phones have used the voice system to cram various types of data through that system. Photos taken on a smartphone are usually much larger than the ones from a dumb phone.

Telus likely has added these items to their voice phone packages because it is a simple and cheap add on, valuable to those with the simpler phones. As more folks migrate to smartphones, these tools will disappear.