The National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM) submits to public consultation a draft decision on amending the decision of the President of the National Authority for Communications no.1023/2008 on establishing communications to the National Unique System for Emergency Calls.
The draft decision mainly aims at updating the measures for fighting prank calls provided in Decision no.1023/2008 by defining and implementing a set of measures designed to prevent prank calls to the 112 emergency call service.
In addition, in order to lower the occupancy rate of the emergency service, ANCOM proposes establishing certain measures to prevent involuntary calls (Silent calls and Wrong number calls).
The measures are to be taken in relation to the number of prank calls initiated during the same day by a caller. According to the draft, the subscribers originating at least 2 prank calls a day from the public mobile telephone networks should receive an SMS warning on the infringement of the legislation in force. As per the subscribers who initiate prank calls to the emergency service at least 6 times a day, in addition to the abovementioned SMS warning, the calls will be redirected, for a 5 days period, to an automatic IVR service (Interactive Voice Response), before being transferred to a 112 operator.
As regards the prank calls originated on the public fixed telephone networks, if more than 2 such calls are registered during the same day, the draft proposes to redirect the calls to an interactive platform, whereby to send the callers an automatic voice message, for a 5 days period, before transferring the call to a 112 operator.
The involuntary calls (Silent calls and Wrong number calls) originated on the public fixed or mobile telephone networks will be automatically redirected, exclusively on the day of their initiation, to an automatic IVR service which will inform the caller, via a pre-recorded message, that he/she had called the 112 emergency call service and, if he/she wishes to request emergency services, he/she should press 5 two times. If, within 20 seconds, the caller does not proceed as mentioned before, he/she will be disconnected.
The measures are proposed pursuant to the legal framework in force. The establishment of other measures, implemented in other states, i.e. temporary restriction of calls to the 112 emergency calls or temporary cease of the telephone service, requires the amendment of the primary framework of Romania and, although considered by ANCOM, these measures could not be included in the set of measures proposed in this draft decision.
The draft decision also envisages ensuring a better reporting of statistics by the SNUAU administrator on the number of reliable, prank, involuntary and false calls, so as to enable ANCOM to assess the measures proposed. Thus, in 2010, every month, the SNUAU administrator will send the Authority the daily statistics on the number of reliable, prank, false and involuntary calls. Starting 2011, the data will be submitted on a half-yearly basis.
The draft decision is available for consultation on the ANCOM website here. The interested persons are invited to send their comments and suggestions, by 08.07.2010, at the ANCOM headquarters in 2 Delea Noua Street, Bucharest 3, directly to the Registry or by means of the Authority’s regional divisions. Comments and recommendations may also be sent by fax to +40 732 845 404 or by e-mail to consultare@ancom.org.ro.