[x6369x]

I've got an 8120 on T-Mobile and headed to Mexico the first week of January and was thinking that using AIM while I'm there would be cheaper that texting:
Text messaging rate (per message)*:
$0.35 sent, $0.15 received (or pulled from feature bucket)
Internet(GPRS) rate*: $0.0150 per KB in all other countries

I found this definition on searchstorage.techtarget.com:

A byte is the unit most computers use to represent a character such as a letter, number, or typographic symbol (for example, "g", "5", or "?").

If I understand this correctly, I will be charged $0.0150 for every 1000 bytes/characters, correct?

[JerryD]

No. Text messaging is typically charged by the message which is limited to 1,120 BITS per message. This translates into 160 characters per message if you are using 7 Bit encoding (7*160=1120), and 70 characters per message if you're using 8 Bit Unicode which requires two 8 bit bytes per character (16*70=1120).

You set the encoding under Options. Certain languages require 8 Bit encoding, but typically not Western languages.

If you use the RIM IM clients, they should not cost any extra as they use your data connection which is typically unlimited. This is also the case for most popular IM clients, but check first! The Oz client (provided by AT&T) uses SMS Relay and does not connect through the data network!