An overview of the fixed telephone emergency services (999/112)

Transcription

1 =>? An overview of the fixed telephone emergency services (999/112) An explanatory document issued by the Director General of Telecommunications 9 October Ludgate Hill London EC4M 7JJ Switchboard Fax Textphone Web Crown copyright 2002

2 2 Contents Explanatory document 3 Glossary 8 References 9 History 10

3 3 Explanatory document Purpose of this document Note: When 999 is referred to in this document the comment applies equally to This document aims to give, for the avoidance of doubt, an overview of the 999 emergency service and its method of operation as it applies to fixed PTO networks. It also discusses the factors that influence its efficient implementation and introduces the wider issues regarding 999. Oftel is aware that this information, although widely understood and acknowledged, has yet to be formally recorded. Oftel therefore considers it advantageous to publish it. Oftel also notes that PTO licence condition 20.3 and licence condition 20.4 require licensees to have particular regard to the needs of emergency organisations in meeting their network security and integrity obligations. This document should help licensees ensure that they are meeting this part of their licence obligations. Introduction 2. The provision of access to emergency services is a requirement imposed upon all public telecommunications operators in the UK that provide Publicly Available Telephone Services (PATS). In three cases, BT, CWC and Kingston Communications, direct emergency operator (answering) service is also provided. Oftel issued a statement (see reference 1) following a consultation that confirmed that these three public telecommunications operators would be the only ones that would provide this emergency operator service in the interests of maintaining a high quality service. The other public telecommunications operators each make use of one or more of these three emergency operator (answering) services. It is a requirement that callers can have access at no charge to the 999/112 service. This requirement is specified in the RVTD (see reference 2, Article 9(c). The RVTD (see reference 2) is enacted by Statutory Instrument SI1580/1998 (see reference 3). 3. Oftel has a duty to ensure that the public telecommunications operators provide an acceptable quality of service under the RVTD (see reference 2) and 999 service provision is particularly important in this regard. 4. The traditional telephone number in the UK for access to the emergency services is 999, which has been in use since The emergency services that can be contacted via this number are police, fire, ambulance, coastguard, mountain rescue and cave rescue. The latter two services are contacted via the police.

4 4 The relationship between 999 and It has been realised that a common code for emergency services across the whole of the EU is desirable. Consequently, an EU decision (see reference 4) required the adoption of the standard emergency access code, 112, within a specified timetable. 6. Further, in recognition of their traditional use, the decision allowed member states to retain any existing codes. 999 is very familiar to people in the UK and hence withdrawal of this number and substitution by another would inevitably lead to confusion and probable risk. Because of this, in the UK both 999 and 112 provide emergency access in parallel. 999 and 112 should, as far as is reasonably practicable, be given equal treatment within the whole of the UK public telephone network and this in turn will be enhanced treatment compared with a normal call. Note: The introduction of 112 to the UK telephone network did cause some problems that resulted from fault conditions and misuse of customer premises equipment. In particular, spurious 1s and 2s could be caused by line or equipment faults, or by repeated tapping of handset switches on lines with loopdisconnect signalling, causing false calls to the emergency operator. The term emergency operator is used to describe the assistance operator assigned to the first reception and initial processing of 999 calls to the emergency services. Measures are in place within the switches to reduce the number of these false calls reaching the emergency operator. This raises two interacting issues: a) additional (false) calls would potentially delay the handling of genuine calls (particularly in poor weather conditions) increasing the load on the emergency operator and police call reception centres as well as needlessly occupying protected circuits and processing capacity in busy network conditions. (The net increase in traffic handled by the public network would be relatively insignificant under normal network conditions). However: b) methods used to reduce false calls could reject legitimate calls. It remains the case that public telecommunications operators should ensure that false calls are reduced to a minimum whilst taking care to minimise the possibility of missing genuine 112 emergency calls. It is recognised that in practice this will necessitate certain differences in the processing of 112 and 999 calls. Description of the emergency (999) service 7. In order to appreciate fully the requirements for an effective emergency service it is essential that the components that make up an emergency call are understood. There are three basic stages in the set-up of an emergency call: a) the first portion from the calling customer to the emergency operator; b) the call handling and monitoring by the emergency operator; and

5 5 c) the hand-off from the emergency operator to the emergency organisation. 8. Call set-up is illustrated in the diagram below: Any of these stages can be further complicated by the originating/destination public telecommunications operator being different from that answering/handing off the call. This could result in as many as three public telecommunications operators handling the call, under normal operating conditions. 9. The initial set-up of the call from customer to emergency operator may take a number of routes: a) originating from a fixed or mobile network; or b) possibly transiting across a point of interconnect. 10. In each case, it is essential that the emergency call be given enhanced treatment compared with other traffic. For the first stage, this can be easily achieved based upon the dialled number, using various techniques to give additional routeing diversity and protection over globally set network management regimes. 11. Having arrived at the emergency operator switches the call is placed in a queue. This will either be a separate high priority queue or a common queue; if the

6 6 latter the call will be given some priority, for example by giving the emergency call an artificial time advantage by it appearing to have been in the queue for ten minutes as soon as it arrives. 12. So far as availability of emergency operators is concerned, it should be noted that the emergency operator is not normally assigned exclusively to one type of call but will potentially answer both assistance and emergency calls. 13. For fixed networks, the network CLI must be passed to the emergency operator. If the CLI is not forwarded it will not be possible, efficiently, to forward location information to the emergency organisations (note: this document does not refer to what may or may not happen in the case of calls to the emergency operator originating on a mobile network). 14. For fixed networks, the CLI is displayed to the emergency operator (note: the use of 141 as a call prefix will not prevent the customer s number being displayed in this case). The CLI performs a number of functions: a) it indicates which particular centre of the Emergency Organisation requested serves the caller (using the geographic nature of the CLI or the postcode/map reference of the caller s location: and b) it also enables the derivation of the name of the customer who pays for the exchange line and the installation address. 15. For fixed networks, the emergency operator then passes the call to the correct emergency organisation, together with information related to the call, defined in paragraph 16 below either as a voice message or as data. 16. It follows from the above that there must be a database that holds customer information related to the CLI. Further, it also follows that this database will have to be populated with data not only from the host company (the PTO providing the operator services) but also those PTOs subscribing to the service. The data required for each customer includes (without any implied guarantee that the data will be accurate): name of the customer; line installation address, including postcode; customer telephone number; and the serving PTO name. 17. The database is updated regularly, at least once each day that changes occur from data provided by the PTOs. This emergency database is only accessible by the Emergency Operator for use with 999/112 calls, and is not available for commercial purposes. 18. For the second stage, protection is established by means of the signalling protocol. Whilst the second stage of the call is being established, and if required

7 7 during the period that the emergency operator has established a connection with the caller, the emergency operator can both monitor connection/conversation and prevent release of the call where signalling standards allow. The second portion of the call to the emergency organisation need not contain any CLI information to be conveyed. 19. It is also essential that maintenance of exchange lines over which calls are passed to the emergency organisations is given a high priority. 20. The essential protecting of the network is vital if the entire network, or a significant part of it, is not functioning it does not matter how much priority is given to 999 calls, they may still not mature. 21. Access to the emergency service is provided for the hearing impaired via Textphone and use of the national typetalk relay service. The number now used is 18000, having previously been

8 8 Glossary Definitions Calling Line Identity, the number of the calling customer. Abbreviations BT British Telecommunications plc CLI Calling Line Identity PTO Public Telecommunications Operator RVTD Revised Voice Telephony Directive

9 9 References call handling, Oftel statement, 4 August Directive 98/10/EC of the European Parliament and of The Council of 26 February 1998 on the application of open network provision (ONP) to voice telephony and on universal service for telecommunications in a competitive environment, OJ L 101, , p Telecommunications (Open Network Provision) (Voice Telephony) Regulations 1998 SI No 1580/1998, The Stationery Office Limited, London. 4. Council Decision 91/396/EEC of 29 July 1991 on the introduction of a single European emergency call number, OJ L217, , p.31.

10 10 History Issue Date Notes Draft December 2001 For inclusion in consultation document Issue 1.0 October 2002 Incorporates comments received during consultation