CORINTH – Alcorn County is ready to buy equipment for the upgrade of its 911 emergency communications system.

On Monday, after learning that a $200,000 grant had been secured, the Board of Supervisors approved the spending of $54,000 for the first piece of equipment. The money will come from the 911 department’s budget and will fulfill the county’s 20 percent match obligation for the grant.

The system to be installed, TelesUSA, will make communication possible with all other emergency and public safety agencies.

It is the primary system used by organizations such as the National Guard, Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Mississippi Highway Patrol and Mississippi Fish & Wildlife to communicate with each other, said Emergency Management Director Ricky Gibens.

The company’s products unify different types of communications through various carriers including analog, voice-over-Internet-protocol, and network technologies like GSM and CDMA used by cell phone carriers.

After the 9/11 attacks ,when public safety and emergency agencies were unable to communicate with each other through their various wireless systems, the Department of Homeland Security made interagency communications a high priority.

In addition to interagency communications, the system has levels of backup – from cellular to satellite to battery power to ham radio – that should prevent lapses in communication, Gibens has said.

The $200,000 award is a Public Safety Interoperable Communications Grant. All Mississippi counties are eligible for it, and counties in the southern part of the state, from the Gulf Coast to Jackson, have already installed it.

Officials statewide plan to have it installed throughout the northern counties by late 2010.

Contact Lena Mitchell at 287-9822 or lena.mitchell@djournal.com.