Geneva County has relied on exemptions to Alabama’s competitive-bid requirements for its IT relationship with Foxhill Information Systems, including exemptions involving professional services and security-related products and services.
Those exemptions may change how the county purchases technology.
But they don’t answer a more basic question:
What are Geneva County taxpayers actually getting for their money?
End-of-Life Equipment Sold to the County
County invoices show Coyote Network Solutions supplying and installing ADTRAN network equipment for Geneva County.
One purchase stands out.
But ADTRAN had announced the retirement of the NetVanta 1534P years earlier.
According to ADTRAN’s own Q4 2018 End-of-Sale/End-of-Life notice:
- End of Sale: December 31, 2018
- End of new software releases: December 31, 2018
- End of ProServices renewals: December 31, 2019
- End of all ADTRAN support / End of Life: December 31, 2020
ADTRAN explained that after the final End-of-Life date, support services would no longer be available and the product would be considered obsolete.
That means the February 2024 sale occurred more than five years after ADTRAN ended sales of the affected 1534P and more than three years after manufacturer support ended.
What About the 1550s?
The 1534P isn’t the only equipment that raises questions.
On July 23, 2024, Coyote invoiced the county for labor associated with installing an ADTRAN 1550 PoE switch at Road & Bridge.
Later maintenance records from Coyote identify a Road & Bridge 1550P with serial number LBADTN1832AN469. ADTRAN’s published serial-number format identifies 1832 as Week 32 of 2018.
If that is the same unit installed in July 2024, it was already approximately six years old when it was installed.
Then, on October 1, 2025, Coyote invoiced Geneva County $1,500 for another ADTRAN 1550P PoE switch for the Courthouse.
The Courthouse 1550Ps appearing on subsequent county maintenance records have serial numbers showing manufacture dates in 2018 and 2019. Depending on which unit corresponds to the October 2025 purchase, that switch would have been approximately 6½ to nearly 8 years old when it was sold to the county.
The January 2026 Maintenance List Tells Even More
Coyote’s January 5, 2026 invoice charged Geneva County $4,000 for annual maintenance covering ADTRAN network equipment.
The equipment listed included switches manufactured as far back as 2010:
| Model | Serial Number | Manufactured | Approx. Age in Jan. 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| NetVanta 1550P | LBADTN1807A4651 | Week 7, 2018 | 7 yrs, 11 mos. |
| NetVanta 1550P | LBADTN1807AA738 | Week 7, 2018 | 7 yrs, 11 mos. |
| NetVanta 1550P | LBADTN1846AH910 | Week 46, 2018 | 7 yrs, 2 mos. |
| NetVanta 1550P | LBADTN1909CK178 | Week 9, 2019 | 6 yrs, 10 mos. |
| NetVanta 1550P | LBADTN1801AE435 | Week 1, 2018 | ~8 yrs |
| ADTRAN 3430 | LBADTN10424F730 | Week 42, 2010 | 15 yrs, 3 mos. |
| NetVanta 1534P | LBADTN15364C468 | Week 36, 2015 | 10 yrs, 4 mos. |
| NetVanta 1531P | LBADTN15304L725 | Week 30, 2015 | 10 yrs, 6 mos. |
So by January 2026, every device on that maintenance invoice was nearly seven years old or older. Three were more than a decade old.
And the 1534P was still appearing on a maintenance invoice more than five years after ADTRAN’s final End-of-Life date.
If Security Is the Justification, This Deserves an Explanation
That’s where this becomes more than a story about old switches.
Geneva County has relied on professional-services and security-related exemptions in connection with its IT spending. The premise is that this work requires specialized expertise and involves infrastructure important enough to receive different treatment under the competitive-bid laws.
Yet the records show the county being invoiced in 2024 for a model whose manufacturer had ended sales in 2018, stopped new software releases in 2018 and ended support in 2020.
They also show 1550-series equipment manufactured years earlier being installed or sold to the county in 2024 and 2025.
And in January 2026, the county was paying Coyote $4,000 annually to maintain a collection of ADTRAN equipment ranging from nearly seven to more than fifteen years old.
That deserves an explanation.
If security and professional expertise are the reasons these purchases receive special treatment, why was Geneva County being supplied aging — and in at least one documented case, manufacturer-obsolete — network equipment?
This isn’t an argument that equipment becomes useless simply because it reaches a certain age. Nor does a manufacturing date by itself prove that a piece of equipment was previously used.
But taxpayers should be able to ask some basic questions:
Was the equipment sold as new or used? Why were these particular models selected? Were county officials informed of their lifecycle status? What manufacturer support remained when they were purchased? And why was equipment that ADTRAN had already declared obsolete being introduced into county infrastructure? (We have in a new records request to determine answers to some of these questions!)
An exemption from competitive bidding may change the procurement process.
It does not eliminate accountability for what taxpayers ultimately receive.
