Cross-State Cooperation on 911

Two counties that face each other across the northern Michigan-Wisconsin border are cooperating to solve a temporary cellular 911 routing problem with Cellular One customers. The two counties have crafted a lease agreement on a phone system to help route wireless E911 calls to the correct PSAP. Under the deal, Iron County (Wisc.) will field all cellular calls from the local tower, which also serves Ironwood (Mich.) just across the border. In return, Gogebic County (Mich.) will provide a phone system to transfer any of its calls 123 miles away to the state police regional comm center in Negaunee for handling. Both counties hope Cellular One will come up with a permanent solution for correctly routing callers to the right PSAP.