Phone bills in Alabama will show a new monthly charge of $1.60 starting Oct. 1 to support 911 emergency services statewide.
The new standardized charge replaces a hodgepodge of monthly fees that ranged from 70 cents to more than $5, depending on the type of phone and its location.
The chairman of the Alabama 911 Board, Roger Wilson, says every Alabama phone customer will now pay the same amount to support 911 services. That includes landline, cell and Internet-based phones.
The money raised by the fee will be distributed by the state board to the 88 emergency phone systems across Alabama to cover their operational costs. The new fee is supposed to generate the same amount that the 911 systems had been getting under the old fees.