The economics of 911 surcharges

Petersburg AT&T subscribers might be paying too much for their monthly Enhanced 911 surcharges and the money might be going to the wrong place.

Ideally, each month when Petersburg cell phone subscribers receive their bill a surcharge of $1 automatically goes into the community’s Enhanced 911 (E911) service fund. Every municipality across Alaska and the nation sets a similar charge, which was designed to pay for the installment, maintenance and any other costs associated with the system.

Alaska state law requires the surcharge to be collected based on billing address.

AT&T charges the fee based...