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Franklin County approves three‑year AT&T internet contract after Ottawa ends shared service
Summary
The commission approved a three‑year contract to move county internet service to AT&T after the City of Ottawa discontinued its community broadband arrangement. County IT staff said reliability for cloud services, not cybersecurity, drove the recommendation.
The Franklin County Commission voted Sept. 24 to contract with AT&T for internet service after the City of Ottawa notified the county it would discontinue the community broadband arrangement that had provided shared service.
Dustin, a county staff member overseeing the procurement, told commissioners the county has relied on a cooperative arrangement with the City of Ottawa since 2013. He said Ottawa notified the county that the shared service would end in December, prompting the county to seek replacement proposals. Dustin recommended AT&T as the lowest‑cost option among bids capable of delivering the county’s required speeds and reliability.
Dustin said reliability was the principal concern: “I do not feel like it is an — I don't feel I can recommend that in our environment whenever we are moving more services to cloud. All of our financial management is dependent on that internet service. Many things that we are doing now is dependent on that internet service. So having any outages for me isn't an acceptable solution.” He added the county retains primary responsibility for cybersecurity configurations for systems that sit on top of the internet connection.
Staff told commissioners the new contract is for three years. During the presentation, staff contrasted the county’s current cost for the Ottawa‑provided service ($550 per month, as stated by staff) with the proposed service; staff described the replacement as a “significant increase” in what the county pays today and said they had sought to time switch‑over close to December to limit the period of higher payments while construction and turn‑up occur.
Commissioners approved the three‑year AT&T contract by unanimous vote.
Dustin said the county also evaluated a Lawrence‑based consortium that primarily serves higher education and government nonprofits, but that proposal was more expensive than the AT&T option.
The county will schedule construction and service activation to minimize overlap and extra monthly costs, staff said.
