Most of Northumberland County’s 9-1-1 funding is obtained by 9-1-1 surcharges on landline, wireless and VoIP telephone lines. The surcharges are found on your phone bill each month. The fees are collected directly by the phone company.

The surcharge on your landline phone is $1.65. The surcharge for wireless and VoIP phone lines is also $1.65.

What are these charges for?
These surcharges go towards the everyday operations, equipment, infrastructure, and personnel of the 9-1-1 communications center. These fees help provide the tools necessary for seamless call control and flow from call pick up to disconnect. This includes the digital phone system that receives the call and passes it to the Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system. The CAD then passes it to the Geographic Information System (GIS) software to pull the location coordinates that CAD uses to recommend the emergency response units for the dispatcher to send to the incident.

What if I have more than one phone in my house?
You will only be charged per phone number at you receive a bill for.

Who has to pay these surcharges?
Everyone that pays for the use of a phone number, whether it is a landline, VoIP, or wireless phone has to contribute.