Court Rules Pre-Paid Cellular Must Pay 911 Fees

The Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that pre-paid cellular phone subscribers are subject to the state’s monthly 911 surcharge, upholding a lower court decision that carrier T-Mobile owes the state $1.9 million in back fees. Previously, T-Mobile was paying the state a fee that it computed from the average monthly use of pre-paid phones, not the number of phone lines. Pre-paid phone users purchase talk-time minutes in advance, and don’t receive a monthly bill like pre-paid customers. In its decision, the court said the legislature clearly intended all cellular phone subscribers to pay the 70¢ per-month surcharge, since pre-paid users have access to the same 911 services as post-paid subscribers. T-Mobile has the technical ability to bill its pre-paid subscribers for the fee, the court noted, since they already can bill them for 411 calls and other services. Download (pdf) the Supreme Courts decision for more details.