The Australian Communications and Media Authority is seeking public comment on a new draft Emergency Call Service Determination, that sets out specific requirements on telecommunications industry participants in making, handling and transferring emergency calls.

The new draft Determination follows an extensive review of the Telecommunications (Emergency Call Service) Determination 2002, which was initiated in April 2008. Responses to the ACMA’s review garnered a wide range of opinions and suggestions about the operation of the existing legislation, and more generally about Australia’s emergency call service. The ACMA also recognises that emergency call service arrangements have more recently come under intense public scrutiny as a result of the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission and the NSW Coroner’s inquest into the death of David Iredale.

A number of matters raised both in these forums and by those who made submissions to the ACMA’s review, are beyond the scope of the ACMA’s Determination and will ultimately need to be resolved by governments. In that regard, the ACMA notes that some structural issues relating to existing obligations and delivery arrangements for emergency services were raised in the Commonwealth Government’s Discussion Paper National Broadband Network: Regulatory Reform for 21st Century Broadband which sought views on how to make the existing telecommunications regulatory framework operate more effectively.

The Key issues are:

• The reduction of non-genuine calls to Triple Zero
  
  
• Obligations on mobile phone providers
  
  
• The ACMA’s VoIP strategy

The ACMA expects to make the revised Telecommunications (Emergency Call Service) Determination 2009 by late 2009 after a period of public consultation.

The closing date for submissions is Friday 21st August 2009.

The draft Determination and accompanying Consultation Paper is available on the ACMA’s website.

Download the complete media release here.