Quote:California state regulators have been working on a plan to charge mobile phone users a text messaging fee intended to fund programs that make phone service accessible to the low-income residents, reports said Tuesday.

The California Public Utilities Commission is scheduled to vote on the proposal next month, but critics have already come out against the scheme, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

“It’s a dumb idea,” Jim Wunderman, president of the Bay Area Council business group, told the paper. “This is how conversations take place in this day and age, and it’s almost like saying there should be a tax on the conversations we have.”

While the amount consumers would be expected to pay remained unclear, some business groups are saying the new charges could cost wireless users more than $44 million a year, FOX11 Los Angeles reported.

Charges may also be applied retroactively to messages sent in the past five years, which has raised questions concerning the proposal’s legality, Rufus Jeffress, vice president of the Bay Area Council, told the San Francisco Bay Area's KNTV-TV. The “alarming precedent” could chalk up to a bill of more than $220 million for consumers, the Mercury News reported.

The wireless industry argues that the fees would put carriers at a disadvantage since competing messaging services like Facebook’s Messenger and WhatsApp would not be charged the new fees, FOX11 reported.

Link

(12-12-2018 04:12 PM)CrimsonPhantom Wrote:  

Quote:California state regulators have been working on a plan to charge mobile phone users a text messaging fee intended to fund programs that make phone service accessible to the low-income residents, reports said Tuesday.

The California Public Utilities Commission is scheduled to vote on the proposal next month, but critics have already come out against the scheme, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

“It’s a dumb idea,” Jim Wunderman, president of the Bay Area Council business group, told the paper. “This is how conversations take place in this day and age, and it’s almost like saying there should be a tax on the conversations we have.”

While the amount consumers would be expected to pay remained unclear, some business groups are saying the new charges could cost wireless users more than $44 million a year, FOX11 Los Angeles reported.

Charges may also be applied retroactively to messages sent in the past five years, which has raised questions concerning the proposal’s legality, Rufus Jeffress, vice president of the Bay Area Council, told the San Francisco Bay Area's KNTV-TV. The “alarming precedent” could chalk up to a bill of more than $220 million for consumers, the Mercury News reported.

The wireless industry argues that the fees would put carriers at a disadvantage since competing messaging services like Facebook’s Messenger and WhatsApp would not be charged the new fees, FOX11 reported.

Link

Hell Kaifornia, why not go for it all?

Start charging "fees" to use/post on FB, Instagram, Tinder, etc. ALL social media.

If the "younger generation" is REALLY all about socialism, they won't mind "paying their fair share" to help out the "less fortunate"....

“This is unsustainable over time,” the report says, arguing that adding surcharges on text messaging will increase the revenue base that funds programs that help low-income Californians afford phone service.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/12/11/o...messaging/

LOL. Dumb Dems. People will just use 3rd party texting apps.

democrats are going to democrat...

(12-12-2018 04:23 PM)SuperFlyBCat Wrote:  “This is unsustainable over time,” the report says, arguing that adding surcharges on text messaging will increase the revenue base that funds programs that help low-income Californians afford phone service.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/12/11/o...messaging/

LOL. Dumb Dems. People will just use 3rd party texting apps.

Everybody is for Socialism until it costs them a couple hundred bucks.

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaas. Dooooooooooooooooooooooooo it.

Paris Demonstrations will look minuscule if this comes to fruition.

Welp, keep inviting in more and more "low-income Californians", then tax them.

Good plan.

Here we are folks, watching the final throes of what will likely be a failed state within our own borders.

Sad. Such a beautiful place, now an equivalent to a third world schithole.

And just wait till Gavin takes over.


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I love the state of California but I hate the California state.

There's one for you, nineteen for me.