Friday, September 11, 2009

The Australian Communications and Media Authority has welcomed a recently introduced industry initiative to address the incidence of non-genuine calls to the Triple Zero (000) emergency call service.

The industry initiative will progressively limit calls from mobile handsets being used to make repeated non-genuine calls to the Triple Zero emergency call service.

‘This is another good example of the mobile telecommunications industry working with Telstra, as the Emergency Call Person for Triple Zero, to develop industry-wide solutions to tackle the problem of non-genuine calls to Triple Zero,’ said Chris Chapman, Chairman of the ACMA.

Telstra, given its experience as the Emergency Call Person, has advised that handling of genuine calls is being increasingly compromised by the need to deal with non-genuine calls or calls that do not relate to time critical or life threatening emergencies.

Under the industry initiative, developed in consultation with the ACMA, mobile handsets from which repeated non-genuine calls are made to Triple Zero operators may be blocked across all mobile networks from being able to make calls. Progressive steps will be taken to formally warn the owner of the mobile handset before the handset is blocked, in addition to the caller details being provided to police as appropriate.

All blocked mobile handsets will be placed on a register managed by the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association. A similar industry-wide blocking process and register exists for mobile handsets that have been reported lost or stolen.

Triple Zero should only be dialled in emergencies that are life-threatening or time-critical situations requiring a rapid response from police, fire or ambulance services.

Calls to Triple Zero will not be blocked under the initial handset blocking process. However, the ACMA and industry will conduct a review of the industry warning and handset blocking process after six months. This will review the trigger level for initiating the blocking and give consideration to extending the blocking process to include Triple Zero calls by fully disabling the handset.

This initiative has the support of emergency services organisations nationally - police, fire and ambulance services.

In Australia, making vexatious calls to Triple Zero is a serious offence under the Criminal Code Act 1995.