Replying to a message of Bj”rn Felten to Ross Cassell:

 RC>> Yes we do, the system has to derive its funding from somewhere,
 RC>> therefore 911 fees are applied as a small tax to the monthly phone
 RC>> bill. On my monthly cell phone bill, its 61 cents.

 BF>    In Sweden we have more cell phone accounts than citizens (about 1.1
 BF> per) and more than 2 land line phone accounts. If the situation in
 BF> the US is approximately the same, that means your 61 cents amounts to
 BF> a total of abt. 600 million dollars. Surely your 911 service cannot
 BF> cost that much?

I don't know how it's done in Europe, but in the US, the 911 operation is usually
run by the individual counties (Iowa has about 90 of those, and Nebraska has 93).
The operations center is usually co-located with the county sheriff's office and
dispatcher (the 911 operator who answers the phone and the dispatcher who sends
the police/fire/ambulance are quite often the same person).  IOW it is not
centralized
 - it is pretty well networked, though.

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