The 9-1-1 service in the Harris County area is funded by a 9-1-1 service fee assessed on all local exchange access lines in the GHC 9-1-1 territory. In that area, which contains the participating jurisdictions of GHC 9-1-1, the Board of Managers sets the fee level each year as a part of the annual budget. GHC 9-1-1 assesses a flat fee of $.50/line/month for residential customers, $.80/line/month (up to 100 lines) for business customers, and $.87/trunk/month.

The fees are invoiced through the telephone bills of customers by all telephone companies and are then transmitted to GHC 9-1-1 to fund the 9-1-1 system.

A wireless 9-1-1 service fee is also assessed at $.50 per subscriber number per month. These fees are transmitted to the State Comptrollers’ Office monthly and are distributed to 9-1-1 entities based on population.

GHC 9-1-1 is currently participating in a state-wide study to determine the most appropriate funding mechanism for subscribers of telephone service through Voice over the Internet Protocol (VoIP) and other broadband technologies.