Currently, some wireless carriers assess surcharges, or taxes, for texting, while others do not.
The California Public Utilities Commission said the industry filed a petition asking them to clarify whether text messaging should be included in the bill amount that is subject to the existing surcharges.
The pending draft proposal that the CPUC will vote on Jan. 10, recommends that the CPUC include text messaging revenue as part of the total bill amount subject to a surcharge.
CPUC uses a portion of cell phone bill surcharges, or taxes, to fund their public programs like 911 service; subsidies on phone bills lowering rates for low-income consumers and providing special phone equipment for the hard-of-hearing, and deaf and disabled.
The CPUC says it’s unclear how a new tax on texting in California will affect consumers, they said it’s possible to phone users will not see a higher bill because the wireless carriers could offset the new text tax by having customers pays less in surcharges on the voice calling part of the bill.
Josh Constine who covers all things mobile for Techcrunch says with the FCC’s new classification of what a text message is has set the stage for a big battle between California State Regulators, the FCC, and wireless carriers.
“The state could decide to go ahead and do the text anyway and even retro the text raising millions of dollars could end up in they earn from texting,” Constine said.