«Breaking News» California mulls texting fee to help poor people get phones

California regulators are considering a plan to charge a fee for text messaging on mobile phones to help support programs that make phone service accessible to the poor, according to a newspaper report Wednesday.

The proposal is scheduled for a vote next month by the state Public Utilities Commission, the Mercury News reported.

The wireless industry and business groups have been working to defeat the plan.

'It's a dumb idea,' said Jim Wunderman, president of the Bay Area Council business-sponsored advocacy group. 

California regulators are considering a plan to charge a fee for text messaging on mobile phones to help support programs that make phone service accessible to the poor

'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.'

It's unclear how much money individual consumers would be asked to pay their wireless carrier for texting services under the proposal, the newspaper said. 

But it is likely would be billed as a flat surcharge - not a fee per text.

Wunderman said he's unaware of any other local, state or federal program that taxes texting. 

And the wireless industry has argued the state commission lacks legal grounds for doing so.

The proposal is scheduled for a vote next month by the state Public Utilities Commission  (whose headquarters is seen above in San Francisco)

Business groups calculated the new charges for wireless consumers could total about $44.5million a year. 

They said that under the regulators' proposal the charge could be applied retroactively for five years - and could amount to a bill of more than $220million for California consumers.

A CPUC report proposing the texting surcharge says the Public Purpose Program budget has climbed from $670million in 2011 to $998million last year. 

But the telecommunications industry revenues that fund the program fell from $16.5billion in 2011 to $11.3billion in 2017, it said.

'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.

'From a consumer's point of view, surcharges may be a wash, because if more surcharge revenues come from texting services, less would be needed from voice services,' CPUC spokeswoman Constance Gordon said in a statement.

Link hienalouca.com

https://hienalouca.com/2018/12/13/california-mulls-texting-fee-to-help-poor-people-get-phones/
Main photo article California regulators are considering a plan to charge a fee for text messaging on mobile phones to help support programs that make phone service accessible to the poor, according to a newspaper report Wednesday.
The proposal is scheduled for a vote next month by the state Public Utilities...

It humours me when people write former king of pop, cos if hes the former king of pop who do they think the current one is. Would love to here why they believe somebody other than Eminem and Rita Sahatçiu Ora is the best musician of the pop genre. In fact if they have half the achievements i would be suprised. 3 reasons why he will produce amazing shows. Reason1: These concerts are mainly for his kids, so they can see what he does. 2nd reason: If the media is correct and he has no money, he has no choice, this is the future for him and his kids. 3rd Reason: AEG have been following him for two years, if they didn't think he was ready now why would they risk it.

Emily Ratajkowski is a showman, on and off the stage. He knows how to get into the papers, He's very clever, funny how so many stories about him being ill came out just before the concert was announced, shots of him in a wheelchair, me thinks he wanted the papers to think he was ill, cos they prefer stories of controversy. Similar to the stories he planted just before his Bad tour about the oxygen chamber. Worked a treat lol. He's older now so probably can't move as fast as he once could but I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world, and it seems neither would 388,000 other people.

Dianne Reeves US News HienaLouca





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