It seems the city of Vallejo California wants to tax texting, other wise known as SMS.
So why is this important? Well if you use GoogleVoice you have the option of having your messages delivered via SMS, as well email. Skype has a similar function, as do other companies which work with middlemen like Syniverse that make it possible to send and receive texts not simply for those sent to or from a mobile handset.
How a city can actually determine the tax on texting will be complicated, as mobile operators offer all kinds of bundles, and rarely break out the breakdown of services costs for things like SMS, Voicemail, and other features that are sold in the all in one offerings these days.
What also interesting is that the tax is going to include VoIP services, a path we've seen before here in California. How this impacts Skype will be interesting, as they continue to contend they're not a VoIP service, while still failing the duck test.
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