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Briefly

California mulls texting fee

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — 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 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. “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. 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.

Business groups calculated the new charges for wireless consumers could total about $44.5 million 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 $220 million for California consumers.

Virgin Galactic aims for space

MOJAVE, Calif. (AP) — Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic is gearing up to finally send its tourism rocket ship to the edge of space.

If successful, it would be a major step toward the long-delayed dream of commercial space tourism.

The next test flight could come as early as today with two pilots taking Virgin Space Ship Unity high above California’s Mojave Desert. A company statement says the next stage of testing aims to “reach a space altitude for the first time.”

“Although this could happen as soon as [this] morning, the nature of flight test means that it may take us a little longer to get to that milestone,” the statement said. Space begins at an altitude of 62 miles; the last test flight was at 32 miles.

Reaching that space threshold would demonstrate significant progress toward the start of commercial flights that were promised more than a decade ago. More than 600 people have committed up to $250,000 for rides in the six-passenger rocket, which is about the size of an executive jet.

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