Telecom calls for government oversight of 111 calls

Telecom says a government agency should have oversight of emergency telephone services after an outage earlier this year sparked an inquiry into the management of 111 calls.

About 30 emergency calls failed to get through after a fault at Telecom's exchange at Papatoetoe, south Auckland, early on February 26.

Telecom ordered an inquiry several hours later and the Government and emergency services became involved.

The company's report, one of a number to be released today, said far-reaching changes across the telecommunications industry, and in particular increased uptake of mobile phones, had raised important questions about the future management of the 111 service.

"We believe there is need for a lead government agency to have oversight of the 111 system," Telecom chief executive David Havercroft said today.

"While the reliability of 111 calls depends on several factors such as the customer's handset, the service provider's network, the initial call answering point and the emergency service provider call centres, currently there is no clear responsibility for coordinating the 111 system across government."

Mr Havercroft said the company would work with officials, other service providers, and industry and consumer bodies to discuss future governance models for the service.

Over 60 per cent of emergency calls were made from mobile phones and new governance arrangements should reflect this, he said.

The company had regarded the outage "with the utmost seriousness" and had since invested several millions of dollars into improving its processes and systems.

It had lowered thresholds for performing testing work, increased backup capacity, and appointed a single point of accountability within Telecom for all emergency call-related issues.

"Actions to rectify identified issues are now completed or well advanced, along with Telecom's ongoing investment in its networks," Mr Havercroft said.

He noted the company had achieved close to 100 per cent reliability over the past 50 years and provided the service without financial assistance from the Government.

"Every year our call centres answer more than two million calls -- 95 per cent of them within five seconds. We take our role extremely seriously."

- NZPA