Miami County staff present plan to upgrade building internet to 1 Gbps through AT&T contract

County staff presented a proposed 36‑month AT&T service agreement at the Aug. 13 study session to upgrade internet at the county administration building from 100 megabits to 1 gigabit and to obtain static IP addressing needed for county systems.
The presenter (staff member) said the new service would increase capacity from 100 Mbps for approximately $1,400 monthly to 1 Gbps for $1,262 monthly under the proposed AT&T contract, and that part of the pricing reflects a legacy circuit replacement. The staff member explained that the static IP address was necessary for key services and that AT&T’s offering includes failover options (air‑card/Wi‑Fi failover) to provide redundancy if fiber is cut.
Commissioners asked whether other providers had been evaluated. The staff member said some county facilities had recently migrated off older legacy contracts and noted that other providers (cable/fiber vendors, local providers) may not offer static IPs or easy redundancy integration at the service level required. Commissioners asked whether the sheriff’s office and other departments were included; staff clarified the sheriff uses a separate internet service and other county facilities (health department, EMS, road and bridge) have their own, separate contracts.
Staff recommended moving forward with the AT&T agreement and asked commissioners to sign the contract at an upcoming agenda item. No formal approval was recorded during the study session; commissioners asked staff to continue exploring local providers as potential redundancy or backup options and to confirm service details, static IP arrangements and cost breakdowns before signing.