Mercury News: A federal regulatory ruling Wednesday aimed at protecting consumers from text-messaging spam may also help California mobile phone users avoid a proposed state texting tax.
The California Public Utilities Commission has proposed a surcharge on text messaging to help cover its growing budget for programs that help make phone service accessible to the poor, with a vote scheduled for Jan. 10. But the proposal — first reported Tuesday by this news organization — has drawn fast and fierce criticism from opponents.
The wireless industry, business groups and other critics argued that California can’t tax text messages unless federal regulators allow state regulators to treat text messaging as a telecommunications service.
On Wednesday, the Federal Communications Commission in a 3-1 decision declared that wireless Short Message Service (SMS) and Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) are “information services” similar to email under the Communications Act — and not a telecommunications service. read more
Those street squatters need to be able to text while taking a dump on the sidewalk. Get em a free phone ffs.
Your phone bill is 80/90% taxes anyways….
Yes! The state will be required to have recharging stations and wifi at those safe smack injection rooms, and the mentally ill definitely have to be available 24/7 in case the voices in their head decide to send a text.
We need more drugged up drivers checking their Facebook !!
Maybe CA can get a federal judge to issue a restraining order on the FCC.
CA is trying any tax they can think of. And labeling each attempt as ‘for the needy’ in some way so they can sell that gold-painted piece of dung.
Sure, let Cali be invaded by illegals and the homeless. Let the Governor pump billions into a train to nowhere. Let tech companies control your thoughts and speech. But don’t mess with their texting ability. They can’t live without twitter.
LCD
“The Needy” are all those State Employees that retired at full pay with full medical coverage. What a racket. And it’s going broke.
The accumulation of this kind of endless abuse is what sparked the Yellow Vest Fags to riot in france. Its not one tax, its the hundreds combined that caused the french homos to finally snap. It is a ways off but if they keep it up it will happen here too, just much worse.
Fuck California… fuck the FCC, too.
And fuck the frogs, and the illegals, and the muslims, and the fags, and the marxists. Every one of them can get fitted for a pike, a nice fucking pike from Vlad.
CA is lost. They went from an idiot to an insane commie for Governor.
The incredible amount of damage the California legislature has done to the state is beyond comprehension. Time to rein them in. How bout 90 day sessions every other year? No salary either. Minimal stipends and per diem only.
I LOVE that all those phone-addicted lefties will have to fork out more to their elected masters.
Yeah @ MBiaAh,
All us fags will finally have had enough and han….. I mean blow them to death…. you are an ass.
“Speaking the truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act.” Geo. Orwell