Phone companies won’t be required to tell consumers about a new state

fee that’s getting added to their monthly bills. And while some
customers will start paying the fee in September, others might not get
charged until later.

The new state budget created a 75-cent Police and Fire Protection Fee
for every landline and cell phone in Wisconsin. It’s expected to
generate about $100 million over the next couple years.

Other telephone fees get split off and itemized on phone bills. Chris
LaRowe of the Wisconsin State Telecommunications Association says
that’s what most companies will do with this fee.

But the way the budget is worded, they don’t have to. Most providers
will want to list it as a separate fee, but it’s possible that
instead, some may simply add a 75-cent increase in a customer’s local
service rate.

The Wisconsin State Telecommunications Association did not like the
way this fee ended up. It was originally supposed to pay for 911
centers, but lawmakers changed it to help balance the budget and
prevent deeper cuts to local governments. In the process they moved up
the start date from October to September.

LaRowe says some companies will be ready, but others with complicated
billing systems may not. He says they might end up having to back
bill, which means that would bill more in later months to make up for
what they did not charge to begin with.

The bottom line, warns LaRowe, is that companies won’t eat the
increase, consumers will.

LaRowe says other questions remain such as how the new fee applies to
customers with more than 10 phone lines.

The state Department of Revenue says it’s still too early to say how
the fee will be implemented.