PhoneAbility

4. Access to 112 emergency services

Access to emergency services through the 112 number, and equivalent national numbers, is a basic safety provision that ought to be available to all users of public telephone services. In addition to this major objective, 112 access can also be a very good indicator of the integrity of any network and its ability to handle exceptional traffic. For these reasons, PhoneAbility welcomes the continued emphasis in EU legislation upon the importance of this 112 facility.  However, although the proposed revisions to the Framework Directives give a much greater emphasis to the obligations, there do not appear to be any new measures and our concerns about present short-comings do not seem to be addressed in any way whatsoever.

PhoneAbility argues that users of the public telephone services should be able to contact the emergency services in whatever modality they normally use for telephone contact, whether that is voice, text telephony, Short Message Service (SMS) or some other. The obligation to provide access (eg on 112) to emergency services is, and will be, met in practice if the bureau answers the call, and if the available caller identification is then forwarded. There is no obligation to have the call answered in any specific modality (or language), as these matters are left to national consideration under the principle of subsidiarity. PhoneAbility does not seek any detailed EU involvement in the way in which Member States are to manage their emergency services, but we do see a need for a voluntary harmonisation of emergency call procedures - coupled with an end to the assumption that all emergency calls will be handled in voice mode. We understand that the Communications Committee (COCOM) is looking at these issues in collaboration with the ERG. We believe that this is the correct approach which will be more likely to achieve the desired outcomes than the further emphasis on inadequate procedures which is suggested by the proposed revisions to the Directive.