Agreed there is always a more, and really want all paper spam to stop immediately. Disagree on the impact of mass-messaging at a nation scale.

Every SMS will wake a phone and keep it active for 10-20 seconds, if background processes firing don’t keep it awake longer. This robs every texted phone of battery wear and flash wear, as well as using energy that will have to be recharged. (Arguably, pointless app updates to manipulate review systems are an even bigger energy drain here. Or how carriers put cheaper plans on weaker bands, causing the modem to have to yell louder.)

The messages are in the control channel through the cell network, and the network must schedule them inside the management traffic. Probably less of a power hit here, but still a hit. There’s power running the machines sending the messages, and the microscopic hit from always on network hardware along the whole path. Individually, it’s all noise. Collectively, it’s going to be quantifiable power use.