On Thursday, January 9, 2007, the government approved the Memorandum submitted by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCTI), in collaboration with the National Regulatory Authority for Communications and Information Technology (ANRCTI), the Special Telecommunications Service (STS) and the Department for European Affairs (DAE), which provides the measures to be taken by the Romanian authorities in view of ensuring access to caller location data, for calls to the unique emergency number112.
The Memorandum was presented in Wednesday’s Government Session and was upheld by the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Mr. Károly Borbély, and by the State Secretary for Communications and Relations with the Parliament, Mr. Constantin Teodorescu.
During the government session, the Minister of Communications, Mr. Károly Borbély advocated the necessity of completing the legislative framework to allow the financing of a technical solution that should enable the transfer of caller location data from the mobile operators to STS.
A joint commission, consisting of representatives of MCTI, ANRCTI, STS, Romtelecom and of the mobile operators, proposed the implementation of a technical solution which would meet the requirements of the European Commission, as well as an action plan setting up the persons in charge and the deadlines for each stage.
The European Commission recommends that, public telephone network operators should make caller location information available to the authorities handling emergencies, to the extent technically feasible, for all calls made to the single European emergency call number 112. Currently, due to the technical incompatibility between the mobile operators and the National Unique System for 112 Emergency Calls (SNUAU) as far as the transfer of caller location information is concerned, the location of mobile calls is limited to sending caller location information at county level and routing the call – based on such information – to the SNUAU access point in that county.
The commission consisting of representatives of MCTI, ANRCTI, STS, Romtelecom and of the mobile operators recommended that mobile callers to 112 should be located using cell-id/sector-id information transmitted by the mobile operators, by SS7 protocol. The technical improvements required for the implementation of this solution will involve only STS’s communications infrastructure, specific soft procedures of the 112 application and the SNUAU link to the Romtelecom network. This operation entails STS’s necessity to interconnect with Romtelecom’s SS7 signalling system, by which the former takes over location information from the mobile operators and forwards it to the SNUAU access point in each county. According to the legal provisions in force, the providers of public electronic communications networks shall route the calls to SNUAU through the public network operated by Romtelecom.
The Minister of Communications, Mr. Károly Borbély highlighted the importance of adopting – as soon as possible – an Emergency Ordinance on the organisation and functioning of the National Unique System for 112 Emergency Calls. This normative act would provide timely financing for the SNUAU, location procedures in line with the European standards, as well as clear responsibilities and obligations for each of the entities involved in ensuring the 112 emergency service.
The terms provided in the Memorandum depend on the approval of the above-mentioned Emergency Ordinance and may not exceed 8 months from the date of making available the implementation funds. The action plan will be sent to the European Commission.