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Look for Another Fee on That Next Cell Phone Bill, to Pinpoint 911 Calls; 83-Cent Monthly Surcharge Will Last Through 2008

Posted on: Sunday, 11 December 2005, 15:00 CST

By AMY RINARD

Cell phone users in Wisconsin will see a new monthly surcharge of 83 cents per wireless phone number starting with their December bills.

The charge, authorized with no public announcement by the state Public Service Commission on the day before Thanksgiving, took effect Dec. 1. It will be billed to every cell phone number each month by every wireless service provider in the state.

The surcharge is set to end Nov. 30, 2008, under the legislation that directed the PSC to establish the new charge.

Wireless service providers report that there are nearly 2.7 million cell phone numbers billed in Wisconsin.

The money collected through the surcharge will be used to make grants to counties and wireless companies to help them pay for technology that allows emergency dispatchers to automatically locate cell phone users who call 911.

Fee amount could change

Under the PSC order that authorized the surcharge, the commission can reduce the amount if actual costs incurred to implement the technology are lower than anticipated, or as the number of wireless customers in the state increases.

"We will be doing periodic reviews so we are collecting just what is needed," said Linda Barth, PSC spokeswoman.

In many areas of Wisconsin, cell phone calls account for about 70% or more of all calls to 911 dispatch centers. Dispatch officials say being able to automatically locate people who call 911 on cell phones will speed help to people in distress and can save lives because often, such callers do not know where they are or cannot accurately describe their location.

Not all counties are likely to implement the new technology in their 911 call centers. The federal government has ordered wireless providers to offer the 911 location service to all counties and municipalities that request it, and implementation of the life- saving technology is already well under way in most other states.

System scarce so far

In Wisconsin, only a handful of counties, including Waukesha, currently have systems in place to pinpoint the location of cell phone callers to 911.

Last month, with considerable fanfare, the PSC and Gov. Jim Doyle announced the award of grants from the new surcharge fund to wireless providers and counties. From the pool of surcharge funds, built up over the next three years, wireless companies are to receive $48 million and counties $30 million to reimburse their expenses for implementing the new technology.

In addition, the PSC will receive $631,600 to recoup its cost of administering the grant program.

Kay Petrie, who oversees cell phone costs for Butters-Fetting, a construction contracting firm in Milwaukee, said she thinks there are already too many fees and taxes on cell phone bills, and that the new surcharge will only increase costs for businesses that pay for employee cell phones.

She said her company has about 110 employee cell phones and that the new surcharge will add an additional $93.30 a month to the company's total cell phone expense which can be as high as $6,000 a month.

Surcharge puzzles executive

"With all the fees and taxes they charge, now they need another 83 cents per number? I don't get it," Petrie said.

While she is all in favor of implementing the 911 cell phone location technology, Petrie said the cost to wireless providers should be borne by those companies, some of which already charge fees to cover regulatory and 911 costs.

She also said state grants to counties could have been paid out of the state sales tax charged on cell phone bills instead of creating another surcharge.

"With 2.7 million cell phones in the state, that's a lot of money collected in sales taxes," Petrie said. "Why do they need another 83 cents? To me it just blows my mind."

Jim Rabbitt, director of the state's Bureau of Consumer Protection, said consumers often have questions about the extra fees and charges on their cell phone bills every month, and that even his staff has a difficult time trying to figure out what the charges are for.

"We don't know what all those abbreviations mean either," he said. "And every company is using their own creative names for things."

Rabbitt said people should be aware that the monthly cell phone rates advertised by wireless companies will actually be higher because of a number of monthly fees and charges, including the new state wireless 911 charge.

Copyright 2005, Journal Sentinel Inc. All rights reserved. (Note: This notice does not apply to those news items already copyrighted and received through wire services or other media.)

Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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