Tangipahoa Parish told NG911 upgrade will boost location accuracy, cost more for wired lines

Kevin, a director with the parish 9-1-1 system, told the Tangipahoa Parish Council that the center must migrate from aging copper trunk lines to a fiber-based ESINET to meet next-generation 9-1-1 requirements and to gain redundancy and new capabilities.

“That copper has become so old and so outdated,” Kevin said, explaining carriers will repair but no longer replace copper trunks. He said a move to fiber will allow dispatch from alternative sites if a center loses power and will support higher data loads needed for modern services.

Kevin described improvements in location accuracy as a central benefit: where the current system can place a caller to within roughly 500 yards, the upgraded ESINET-based service will provide x, y and z coordinates and bring accuracy to “about 10 feet,” meaning dispatchers may determine what floor of a building a caller is on.

The presentation detailed several operational upgrades that would follow an ESINET migration: continuous phone tracking after a 9-1-1 call is activated (helpful in abduction cases), real-time text for callers who are hearing impaired instead of slow TTY/TDD technology, instant video links from callers’ phones to responders, and automated translation or transcription services.

Kevin summarized projected costs and how they would be covered. He said recurring costs for the core fiber service would rise from about $24,000 per year to roughly $168,000 per year; call-handling and logging services would increase from about $42,000 per year to about $165,000 per year. He added an upfront installation cost of approximately $400,000, which the presenters said would be paid from technology reserves already allocated for upgrades.

Sherry, a staff member who explained the rate calculations, said the board backed into the proposed per-line increases based on the number of residential and business wired lines so recurring costs would be covered without putting the board into a deficit. Kevin and Sherry stressed that Louisiana law currently prevents parishes from increasing cell-phone fees, so the proposed increases apply to wired landlines only.

Kevin said the system’s new features also include AI-assisted call triage to prioritize high-risk calls, removal of physical trunk limits (so call handling becomes limited by staff rather than by a number of physical lines), and improved language support that would reduce delays from connecting to outside translation services.

Council members asked how the changes would affect ordinary callers and how long the rate increases would remain necessary. Kevin said end users would notice faster, near-instant routing and substantially improved location information but that the user experience would otherwise remain familiar. He estimated the chosen system should remain adequate for about five years before replacement would again be considered.

The council asked for the slides and thanked the presenters. The parish clarified that the council does not set 9-1-1 rates but that the presentation was intended to inform elected officials and the public about the rationale for the April 1 rate changes and the technical and safety reasons for the upgrade.

The most recent procedural step reported was that the 9-1-1 board had closed an RFP and would vote on a bid to provide the ESINET service; Kevin said directors planned to urge for statewide options and redundancy and that directors would meet in Washington to discuss federal support and redundancy efforts.