The assessment of the provisional measure of warning, by SMS, all those who unjustifiedly call the emergency number 112 revealed that the SMS campaign is not effective enough, having proved a weak and transitory impact.
This provisional measure, initiated last year by a working group of MCSI, STS, ANCOM and the representatives of the largest telephony operators and adopted through an ANCOM decision, consisted of sending SMS warnings to those who repeatedly originated unjustified calls to 112. It was enforced during a three-month period (20 March – 20 June 2009), as part of a pilot project intended to test the effectiveness of this measure.
Based on the statistics provided by the operator of the National Unique System for Emergency Calls (SNUAU) at the end of the three months, ANCOM assessed the impact of this measure, taking into account both prank and reliable calls received during the SMS campaign, and, for the sake of comparison, the calls received during the three months preceding the testing period. ANCOM’s statistics reveal – alongside a cutback by 36.84% in the number of prank calls received during the three testing months, as compared to the average number of such calls received in the three months preceding the project – a decline of the number of reliable calls, by 39.11%. Therefore, the average weight of the prank calls to 112 registered a slight increase, from 53.1% in the three months preceding the SMS campaign to 54% during the campaign.
Thus, the total average number of calls to 112 between December 2008 and February 2009 was 986,654 calls/month, whereas the monthly average number of prank calls was 524,195, i.e. 53.1% of the total number. During the SMS campaign (20 March-20 June), the total average number of calls to SNUAU was 612,687 calls per month, while the average number of prank calls during the same period was 331,078, i.e. 54% of the total amount.
An indicator of the partial effectiveness of this warning step on prank callers is the number of calls received from individual telephone numbers. For example, the user of the telephone number 0722.00x.xxx called the 112 service 2,432 times in the first month of the SMS campaign, 1,567 times in the second month and 1,708 times in the third (the average number of calls received from this number in the three pre-testing months amounting to 3,030 calls/month). The same type of behaviour exhibited the user of the telephone number 0745.71x.xxx, who called 2,921 times, respectively 1,546 and 2,045 times. The assessment of the campaign on 112 pranksters showed that most of these callers relented in the first two months and revived their abusing behaviour with greater intensity after the SMS campaign.
The data processed by ANCOM show that the pilot-measure for fighting prank callers did not have the expected impact. The apparently drastic downfall of prank calls (from 495,819 in February, to 355,477 in between 20 March-20 April and to 315,837 between 21 Aprilie and 20 May) may be due, to a great extent, to the oddness of the implemented measure, but it goes along with the fluctuation of the total number of calls to the SNUAU. The analysis of the statistical data indicates that the effect of this measure is likely to attenuate over time, and that those who originate prank calls to 112 come back even more recklessly from the same telephone number.
“Following this analysis, ANCOM deems necessary to define and implement a set of simultaneous measures for fighting prank calls to 112, a set that could include an SMS warning, as well as a temporary restriction of access to the commercial telephone services, so that the pranksters could no longer use the telephone except for calls to 112. The restriction could not be lifted unless the user presents its personal data to the operator that sold the card, which will enable the police to levy the fines provided by the law, i.e. from RON 500 to RON 1,000”, the ANCOM President, Mr. Catalin Marinescu, declared. ”These measures were designed so as to target especially prepaid card users, since 90% of the prank calls to 112 come from such users,” Mr. Marinescu highlighted.
The report, alongside ANCOM’s recommendations, were presented to the National Coordination Committee for the SNUAU activity, a body which comprises MCSI, STS, ANCOM, MAI and MS representatives. The measures for fighting prank calls are to be established within this group.
During the three months a total 701,340 warning SMS were sent to 16,816 prepaid card pranksters.
Further information:
Among the measures adopted at the European level against prank calls to the emergency services, we count: the possibility that, in case of repeated/prank calls placed from one number, the caller should be enclosed on a temporary blacklist in Denmark, the Czech Republic, Germany, Spain, Lithuania, and the Netherlands. Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium have implemented automatic warning messages, while Germany and Slovenia provide for the possibility of calling back those who break the rules, in order to warn and discourage them. Countries such as Finland, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Slovenia and Slovakia impose criminal sanctions, ranging from fines between 300 and 3,000 Euro to two weeks in prison for those who cause serious offences. Germany, Spain and the Netherlands have chosen to implement simultaneously three measures for fighting prank calls to 112, Slovenia and the Czech Republic – two, while the other countries enforce one measure against prank callers to the emergency services.
According to a working document of the European Commission, published on 23 July 2008, the weight of prank/false calls to 112 was very high in 2007 (85%-95%) in Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary. The percentage was also high in the Czech Republic (60%-80%), Spain (73%), Poland (70%), the Netherlands (66%), Sweden (60%) and Latvia (52%). Reportedly, there was a percentage of 27% in Finland, whereas Luxembourg and Greece registered the lowest percentage of prank calls, i.e. 21.47%, respectively 15%.