Emergency management proposes switching county phones to T-Mobile, cites potential savings and new alert capability

YANKTON, S.D. — Paul, director of Yankton Countys Office of Emergency Management, told commissioners the county could reduce its monthly cellular bill by switching many county devices from Verizon to T-Mobile and that the move would add device-management features and a STARLINK satellite fallback option expected to be available in July.

Paul said the county's current Verizon bill for department devices runs about $1,700 a month and that he has been talking with T-Mobile and other carriers about coverage and plan features. "Right now, our Verizon bill is running the county about $1,700 a month," Paul said. He reported T-Mobile provided phones and hot spots for Riverboat Days last year and the devices performed well for event payments and data.

Paul said switching could allow the county to turn off unused hot spots (reducing charges when not in use), provide a central control panel to suspend lost devices quickly, and give local technical support from a nearby team rather than relying on remote email-based service. He said some devices will need SIM updates and that most county phones are already 5G-capable so carriers can provide SIM cards rather than full phone replacements.

Paul outlined other emergency-management items: the county's Local Emergency Management Performance Grant (LEMPG) reimburses roughly half the emergency-management salary; he said last year that reimbursement totaled about $70,959 and that he expects roughly $75,000 this year because of state salary-rate adjustments. He also said the county applied for grants to update the hazardous-mitigation and hazardous-materials plans (roughly $12,000 and $7,000 awards mentioned) and that the county had obtained recognition as a "storm-ready community."

On public alerting, Paul described the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) capability that lets officials send geographically-targeted emergency messages to phones. "We now have that capability to send out... we can put a geofence up and send that message out," he said, adding the county will run a public outreach campaign when the system is fully online so residents know how to receive alerts.

Paul cautioned that some technical details remain under negotiation and that his savings estimates are approximate. He said the county will need to retain some Verizon services while it finds an IP-phone replacement for the ambulance office and other systems tied to Verizon. The commission did not take a formal vote on the phone migration at the meeting; Paul said he would continue negotiations and follow up with implementation steps if the commission gives approval