Not paying for 911 from your prepaid? You might soon

This is something we’re surprised has taken this long to address. Out in Michigan, they’re finally extending 911 fees to cell phone users. Previously, only landlines were subject to the monthly fee, which was 29 cents. Starting in the new year, though, the fee will be reduced to 19 cents, but will be levied on mobile phone accounts as well as landlines. Predictably, this measure passed by a wide margin in the state Senate and House.

“That’s exactly what we wanted. This is a much fairer bill,” said County 911 Director Tom McIntyre, who said lawmakers who stipulated in 1992 that charges would apply to land lines never imagined the rise of cell phones.

Fair it is. We’ve been looking into a lot of Canadian prepaid companies, and it appears that the overwhelming majority of them already charge a monthly 911 fee. Since Saginaw County official claim that 60 percent of 911 calls come from cell phones, this measure makes complete sense.

This matters for non-Michiganers too, because we can now expect to see other states adopt this policy. If you’re not paying a monthly 911 fee on your cell phone, post- or prepaid, we would think that you will be in the near future. After all, more and more of us are going cell-only nowadays.

[The Saginaw News]

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