Cell phone bills to go up in West Virginia
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WBOY) — Starting next month, West Virginians will see a slight increase to their cell phone bills.
According to a release Thursday from the Public Service Commission (PSC) of West Virginia, the wireless enhanced 911 (WE911) fee in West Virginia will increase by 10.2 percent in July, going from $3.64 to $4.01. On top of that, wireless providers will begin to collect a $0.08 wireless tower fee and a $0.29 public safety wireless fee, both of which will be shown separately on customers' bills.
In total, customers will see their 911 fees jump from $3.64 to $4.38.
All of West Virginia under Air Quality Alert Thursday
So what do these funds do?
The funds from these new fees are designed to go toward improving and operating 911 and emergency phone services, the release said. The PSC collects the fees through wireless service providers, but the funds are redistributed to counties.
The WE911 fee can be recalculated every two years based on costs that county commissions impose on local exchange and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) users, which is known as the enhanced 911 fee. If the enhanced 911 fee goes up by a certain percentage, the WE911 fee is set to match it.
In March 2025, the PSC voted to increase the enhanced 911 fee by 10.17 percent, meaning that the WE911 fee has now been raised to match, rounding to the nearest penny. According to the West Virginia State Code, the fee can never increase by more than 25% at a time.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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