Collin County Emergency Communication Committee Fiber Project

About the Program

Category: Information Technology (Best in Category)

Year: 2009

The population growth of Collin County required the IT Department to increase citizen services provide increase communications, and offer options that could support the continual growth of the county. They were adding as many as four T1 Internet communications lines each year. They set out to resolve the following concerns: reduce the overall recurring cost of 27 T1 communications lines, establish a proprietary communications network for Homeland Security, provide connectivity to the larger cities in Collin County for daily business requirements, and improve performance of on-line services. In 2005, they evaluated fiber options to replace the 27 existing T1 lines. To do that, the county would need 124 miles of optic line to connect all of its facilities, at an estimated cost of $3.5 million. This not being an option, they explored what fiber optic line already existed. They discovered Collin County Community College had 84 miles of fiber. They worked with them and developed an inter-local agreement to share 16 strands of their existing lines in exchange for discounting the College’s tax collection for five years at 25%. This included the first five years of maintenance. It saved taxpayers $1.2 million dollars and eliminated the County’s T1 reoccurring costs of $330,000 a year.