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Allegheny County 911 dispatchers field about 1.3 million emergency calls a year and coordinate ambulances, police units and fire crews — using radio signals at a precise frequency that was set up 50 years ago to guarantee smooth operations in regions with high demand for telecommunications.

A government spectrum auction planned for February 2021 would force the county — along with public safety jurisdictions spanning from Eastern Ohio to Indiana County and Greene to Butler counties — from that wavelength. The cost of upgrading operations to a new frequency could reach $250 million, county officials have estimated…