Ft Worth Times

What is happening? Service fees collected from phone service providers help pay for emergency equipment, support, training, maintenance and telecommunicator courses.

What’s the benefit to taxpayers? These specific fees will directly benefit Tarrant County residents through response times from emergency services and accurate locating services.

In 1985, Tarrant County residents voted to form a countywide communication district that allows for emergency assistance services to communicate across the county when locating people who called for assistance. The funding for the Tarrant County communications district’s creation came from phone provider service charges through small fees.

Today, the communications district is still funded by a service fee collected from service providers. The service fees from service providers, like AT&T, are different for residential and business phone lines. The district also receives money from a statewide surcharge on wireless phone service. The phone company charges the customer and sends the fee to the 911 communication district monthly.

Cost breakdown from calls:

• Residential lines are $0.20 per line (these are home hard-wired phones or what we call landline/wireline, and represents about 13% of our revenue.
• Business lines $1.75 per line (same hard-wired phones as above).
• Business trunks $2.50 per trunk (includes PBX).
• Nomadic VoIP $0.50 per line (this also includes all wireless (cell/mobile phones).

These service fees help to fund first responder’s equipment and the technology behind providing the best responsiveness available.  Fort Worth’s 911 answering center is responsible for response times, which can be challenging with staffing shortages and the increase of emergency calls coming into centers. These funds help secure vital resources to keep response times short and effective.

The Tarrant County communication district is governed by a board of managers made up of:

• Two representatives from the City of Fort Worth.
• One representative from the Commissioners Court.
• One representative the City of Arlington, the City of Grand Prairie, the City of Irvin, and the Tarrant County Mayor’s Council.

The Tarrant County 9-1-1 District Board FY24 proposed budget included:

• An overall budget decrease of $6.01 million. This reduction will now help the completion of the Next-Generation Core Services project.
• Expanded 911 operator training program.
• Expanded assistance with pre-hire testing to support call center retention.
• Expanded public education outreach program, which will now strongly focus on young residents and families.
• Improved location accuracy for wireless devices when used to call for emergency assistance. Ensuring that the accuracy matches the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) standards of 98% accuracy.

On Sept. 19, the City Council reviewed and approved the district’s budget for the FY24 year. The district also updated the City Council on a report about combining some emergency services into one place.

View more details on the City’s FY24 budget webpage.

Original source can be found here.