Some 911 Fees Go Unpaid by Phone Companies, Lawsuit Says

Local officials in several states have filed dozens of lawsuits saying phone companies, such as AT&T and Verizon, are doling out discounts to businesses at the expense of 911 emergency services.

Telecom operators are required by local laws to charge a 911 fee, typically about $1 for each phone line to support local 911 dispatch centers, including salaries, training and equipment for call takers. But with heated competition for business customers, phone companies have been undercutting one another by lowering those 911 fees for big businesses, resulting in less money for local authorities, the lawsuits allege. Officials in many of the affected counties arrived at the conclusion with help from Roger Schneider, an entrepreneur from Huntsville (AL), who stumbled across the issue 12 years ago. At that time, a representative from BellSouth, now part of AT&T, offered his small business such a discount without realizing that he was a member of the local 911 oversight board. Nationwide, local governments spent more than $3.1 billion on 911 services in 2014, while collecting $2.5 billion in 911 fees, leaving a $600 million funding shortfall, according to the most recent data from the Federal Communications Commission. Only a dozen states reported to the FCC that they collected enough fees to cover their 911 spending for the year, though not all states reported complete data.