St. Joseph County to upgrade 911 lines, staff say move to fiber will improve redundancy and reduce recurring costs

St. Joseph County commissioners approved a contract proposal with AT&T on Jan. 27 to replace aging copper 911 trunks with fiber and upgrade phone and internet infrastructure at the county 911 center and its backup facility.

Sal Parisi of the St. Joseph County 9-1-1 Center summarized the technical rationale: copper feeds are older, costlier to maintain, and present single points of failure; fiber will add bandwidth, improve synchronization between the main and backup centers, and create redundancy that allows simultaneous call-answering at both centers. Parisi told commissioners the upgrade should increase reliability and reduce monthly recurring costs by an estimated $3,400 and roughly $41,000 annually.

Following the presentation, the commissioners moved, seconded and approved the AT&T contract proposal by voice vote. Staff emphasized that the project is intended to improve emergency-call handling reliability and create a redundant link between facilities.