Telecommunications (Emergency Call Service) Amendment Determination 2007 (No. 1)

Administered by Department of Communications and the Arts

Legislation au F2007L04260 Not in force Legislative Instrument

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EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

 

Issued by the authority of the Australian Communications and Media Authority

 

TELECOMMUNICATIONS (EMERGENCY CALL SERVICE) AMENDMENT DETERMINATION 2007 (No.1)

 

Background

The Telecommunications (Emergency Call Service) Amendment Determination 2007 (No.1) (‘the Amendment Determination’) amends the Telecommunications (Emergency Call Service) Determination 2002 (‘the ECS Determination’).

 

The ECS Determination was made under subsection 147 (1) of the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act 1999 (‘the TCPSS Act’) which requires that the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) must make a written determination that places requirements on any or all of the following: carriers, carriage service providers (CSPs) and emergency call persons with regard to the emergency call service.

 

Section 147(9) of the TCPSS Act requires that, before making a determination, ACMA must consult representatives of each of the following groups:

  • carriers;
  • CSPs;
  • recognised persons who operate an emergency call service;
  • emergency service organisations; and
  • consumers of standard telephone services.

 

The ECS Determination is to be read in conjunction with the Telecommunications (Emergency Call Persons) Determination 1999, which specifies both Telstra and the National Relay Service (NRS) provider as national providers of emergency call services (that is, emergency call persons). The NRS provider is currently Australian Communication Exchange Limited.

 

The emergency numbers 000, 112 and 106 are specified in the Telecommunications Numbering Plan 1997 (the Plan) as the numbers to be used for access to emergency services. Telstra has the responsibility of providing the service which answers calls to the emergency numbers 000 and 112, and transfers them, with relevant associated information, to the requested emergency service organisation.  The NRS provider has the same responsibility with regard to the emergency service number 106, specified in the Plan for use as a secondary emergency service number, and which connects to the text-based relay service for people who are Deaf or who have a hearing or speech impairment.

 

The ‘emergency call service’ is defined in section 7 of the Telecommunications Act 1997, and ‘emergency service organisation’ is defined in subsection 147(11) of the TCPSS Act.  In summary, the emergency call person can only connect callers to a police, fire or ambulance service, or a service for dispatching a police, fire or ambulance service.

 

There is a degree of uncertainty within the telecommunications industry in relation to whether the ECS Determination applies to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services. Many VoIP service providers already provide free-of-charge access to the Triple Zero emergency call service. Some VoIP service providers have published disclaimers on their websites that their service does not provide emergency call access, thereby positioning themselves to argue that it was not reasonable for a customer to choose the service (as the first choice) in an emergency. However, ACMA has always maintained that most VoIP services are covered by the ECS Determination because they have the functionality to make calls to and receive calls from the public switched telephone network (PSTN), and therefore come within the meaning of “standard emergency telephone service” (SETS) as set out in the Dictionary in the ECS Determination.  A SETS is defined as a “standard telephone service that an end-user would reasonably choose, as a first choice, to make an emergency call”. A standard telephone service is defined in section 6 of the TCPSS Act.

 

Because of this uncertainty, there appears to be a need for greater clarity within the VoIP industry about the Determination, about what is a standard telephone service and a SETS, and their application to VoIP services, especially as the range of VoIP service delivery models makes characterising VoIP services as standard telephone services particularly difficult.

 

VoIP Report

On 22 November 2005, the Australian Government published a report titled Examination of Policy and Regulation Relating to Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) Services (‘the VoIP Report’)[1]. The VoIP Report was the result of a study conducted by the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts (DCITA) in conjunction with ACMA and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission into an appropriate policy and regulatory approach to VoIP services in Australia. The Report considered 49 submissions from industry, and provided 30 recommendations, all of which were accepted by the Government and referred to ACMA, the Department of Communications Information Technology and the Arts, Attorney-General’s Department, Communications Alliance and industry for implementation.

 

VoIP is a digital technology that encodes voice communications into packets for transmission using the Internet Protocol.  According to the VoIP Report, VoIP is used generally as a catch-all for a range of voice services, often quite different from each other. VoIP services require a broadband connection which could be provided over different broadband infrastructures (e.g. DSL, HFC, WiFi, satellite and optical fibre).

 

In terms of telephony, the VoIP Report identified four kinds of VoIP services:

  • Peer-to-peer services—isolated from the public telephone network and allowing end-users only to make and receive calls on-net.
  • Dialout-only services—which allow the end-user to make outgoing calls to public numbers, but not to receive calls.
  • Dialin-only services, which support only incoming calls from public numbers—these do not feature in the current discussion but would appear to be an option for premium rate services and for services with 13, 1300 and 1800 numbers.
  • Two-way services—that is the ability to make calls to, and receive calls from, other end-users with public numbers.

 

One area where the VoIP Report recommended change was in relation to two-way and dial-out only VoIP services and free of charge access to the emergency call service. The VoIP Report made the following recommendations relating to obligations on VoIP service providers concerning emergency call services.

 

Recommendation 7:

Because all VoIP services are capable of being moved, location information provided automatically to emergency service organisations may be inaccurate. VOIP services should be flagged in the integrated public number database (IPND) so that the emergency service operator will know they will need to ask the caller for location information. ACMA should give priority to consulting with law enforcement agencies, emergency service organisations and industry generally on how the end user and service provider can manage and update flags and other information in the IPND.

 

Recommendation 22:

Two-way VoIP services that connect to the public telephone network must provide free 000 and 106 emergency call access and reliable calling line identification (CLI).

 

Recommendation 23:

Dial-out only VoIP services must provide free access to 000 and 106.

 

The Amendment Determination is designed to implement recommendations 7 and 22.  Recommendation 23 will not be implemented at this stage, as ACMA wishes to conduct additional consultation with industry in relation to implications for dial-out only VoIP services. The Amendment Determination is also confined to VoIP-related changes, since the ECS Determination is currently subject to a broader review with a view to producing a completely revised determination in 2008.

 


Broader Review

 

ACMA will commence a more extensive review of the ECS Determination, later in 2007, and anticipates that this will result in a revised ECS Determination being made in 2008. The intention of this broader review is to enable the ECS Determination to better cater for challenges posed by new and emerging service offerings to Australian end-users. The current ECS Determination is predominantly based on analog fixed line telecommunications services, augmented with mobile, satellite and VoIP services, and needs to be reviewed more fully to take account of the digital transition and emerging IP-based network service offerings.

 

There are significant differences between the way traditional services operate and the way new and emerging services are deployed. In particular, for VoIP services, the provision of information about the location of the caller and the identity of the caller using the service present new challenges for both emergency call services and emergency service organisations. However, recognising the urgent need to confirm the obligations of VoIP service providers to give their customers free-of-charge access to emergency call services, ACMA decided to separate the ECS Determination revision process into two separate stages and to make the Amendment Determination for the purpose of confirming the Government’s stated policy position by implementing the recommendations of the VoIP Report.

 

Outline of Amendment Determination

The Amendment Determination contains various amendments to the ECS Determination designed to:

  • confirm existing requirements or obligations, to remove confusion and provide regulatory certainty to industry participants;
  • confirm that the ECS Determination applies to two-way VoIP services capable of dialling into the public switched telephone network, and require that providers of such services must provide free-of-charge access to the emergency call service;
  • clarify that a CSP’s obligation to provide access to the emergency call service cannot be avoided by claims that it does not supply a SETS;
  • introduce the concept of a potentially nomadic service termed as a “location independent communications service”;
  • specify the obligation to populate the IPND and indicate location uncertainty by way of the alternate address flag, for VoIP service providers of two-way services for which the end-user has been issued with a public number;
  • require that VoIP service providers must provide location information by Standardised Mobile Service Area coding to the emergency call person; and
  • update references to documents that have recently been revised or amended.

 

 

Consultation

The Amendment Determination has been prepared in response to Recommendations 7, 22 and 23 of the VoIP Report. The VoIP Report was prepared following extensive consultation with industry and other stakeholders, including written submissions and joint consultative workshops held in Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney in early December 2004.  A draft of the Amendment Determination was published on 15 June 2007 for public comment that closed on 2 July 2007.

 

In accordance with subsection 147(9) of the Act, the draft Amendment Determination and an accompanying consultation paper were forwarded directly to the emergency call persons Telstra and ACE, Communications Alliance Limited as representative of carriers and CSPs, all known CSPs that provide VoIP services, emergency service organisations and the Consumers' Telecommunications Network as representative of consumers of standard telephone services.

 

Comments were received from nineteen parties:

  • one emergency call person—Telstra;
  • three representative bodies—Consumers’ Telecommunications Network representing end-users of emergency call services, Communications Alliance representing carriers and CSPs and National Emergency Communications Working Group representing emergency service organisations;
  • five state/territory emergency service organisations—Emergency Services Telecommunications Agency (VIC.), Victoria Police, NSW Fire Brigade, NT police and QLD Department of Emergency Services; and
  • ten CSPs—Activ8me Australian Private Networks, Agile, Engin, GoTalk, iiNet, Internode, NEC Australia, Optus, Primus Telecom and Skype.

 

Most submitters were generally supportive of the proposed changes to the Determination as appropriate to implement the Government’s stated policy position, although some of them did not agree with that stated policy position. Concern was expressed by some submitters that there were downsides to giving end-users of VoIP services access to emergency call services, namely:

  • the increased likelihood of hoax/malicious calls resulting from the anonymity of end-users of dialout-only VoIP services;
  • the risk of computer-generated denial of service attacks on the emergency call services;
  • the need to educate end-users that VoIP services may be less reliable than mobile phones, fixed line phones or payphones for making emergency calls;
  • the increased likelihood of emergency calls being transferred to an ESO outside the state or territory in which the emergency caller is located;
  • generally the unavailability or unreliability of caller location information; and
  • unresolved technical and regulatory issues associated with calls originating offshore, Australian end-users using offshore gateways, and offshore providers used by Australian end-users; and
  • technical difficulties associated with implementation of Recommendation 23

 

Telstra and Optus both expressed concern that greater access by VoIP services to the emergency call service would bring the concomitant risk of an increase in hoax and malicious calls and the possibility of computer-generated denial of service attacks that would overload the emergency call service and create excessive delays in the handling of genuine emergency calls. Telstra stated that the proposed amendment should require  “service providers to take all the necessary precautions to prevent the possibility of malicious call attempts by end users to overload the emergency call services by electronic (computer) generated nuisance or hoax calls.” Optus stated that “ACMA should not expose any telephony customers to such risks and therefore should not proceed with the Amendment without also establishing adequate protection measures to effectively deal with deliberate nuisance callers”.

 

Notwithstanding the importance of these matters and the need for their resolution in due course, ACMA has decided to confine the Amendment Determination to changes that clarify the Government’s stated policy position and to implementation of Recommendations 7 and 22 of the DCITA VoIP Report, with these matters of concern to be addressed in ACMA’s broader review of the ECS Determination.

 

Because of technical difficulties associated with implementation of Recommendation 23 and, in particular, practical difficulties in VoIP providers responding to a possible ACMA Determination requiring access to the emergency call service, ACMA and DCITA contacted more than forty Australian providers of VoIP services urging them to find technical solutions so that all users of VoIP services have access to the Triple Zero emergency call number. The Government is looking to obtain firm commitments on what can be achieved and by when.

 

Those VoIP providers have also been consulted on options to inform consumers of the inability of some VoIP calls to connect to the emergency services,  

 

The issue of implementing recommendation 23 is to be addressed in ACMA’s broader review of the ECS Determination.

 

Following advice from Communications Alliance, references to industry codes, guidelines and specifications published by Communications Alliance have been updated.

 

Regulation Impact Statement

A Regulation Impact Statement is not required for the Determination as the costs to industry and restrictions on competition are not significant.

 

NOTES ON SECTIONS

 

Section 1 - Name of Determination

 

This Determination is the Telecommunications (Emergency Call Service) Amendment Determination 2007 (No.1).

 

Commencement

Section 2 provides that the Amendment Determination commences on the day after it is registered on the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments.

 

Amendment of Telecommunications (Emergency Call Service) Determination 2002

Schedule 1 contains amendments to the Telecommunications (Emergency Call Service) Determination 2002.

 

Schedule 1 - Amendments

Item 1

Item 1 adds a new subsection 8(5) to provide that a carriage service provider’s obligation to provide access to the emergency call service cannot be avoided by claiming that it does not supply a SETS.  

 

Item 1 also adds a note to subsection 8(5) confirming that whether a service is a SETS is to be judged against the new definition of that term in the Dictionary, and not by attempts to avoid obligations to comply with the Amendment Determination.

 

Item 2

Item 2 amends paragraph 16(2)(a) by including a reference to the new section 17A in the general obligations for handling emergency calls, in addition to the sections 17, 18 or 18A. 

 

Item 3

Item 3 adds a new section 17A, wherein a carriage service provider who supplies a location independent communications service that is also a SETS must ensure that an emergency call using the emergency service number 000 is carried to a point reasonably specified by the emergency call person for 000 and 112, or for an emergency call using 106, a point reasonably specified by the emergency call person for 106. If the network carrying the emergency call does not allow direct delivery of the call to that point, the carriage service provider must arrange to ensure the call is delivered to the point by another network.

 

Item 3 also adds a note under subsection 17A(4) referring to the written arrangements in subsection 8(2) of the Determination that apply where a carriage service provider must arrange to ensure the call is delivered to the point by another network.

 

The Amendment Determination defines location independent communications service in the Dictionary.

 

Item 4

Item 4 substitutes the notes under subsection 19(2) with a note that refers to the current version of the applicable industry code, named Industry Code ACIF C536:2003 Emergency Call Services Requirements, containing practical information to assist carriage service providers to meet their obligations under the Determination. It sets out the name of the organisation that publishes the industry code by its current name, the Communications Alliance Limited.

 

The Communications Alliance Limited came into existence on 1 September 2006 as a result of the merger of the Australian Communications Industry Forum (ACIF) and Service Providers’ Association. The Communications Alliance Limited represents the telecommunications industry for the purposes of Part 6 of the Telecommunications Act 1997. There are a number of similar house-keeping amendments in the Amendment Determination to replace ACIF with the Communications Alliance Limited.

 

Item 5

Item 5 substitutes note 2 under subsection 22 (2), and replaces the reference to the 2001 version of the applicable industry code to the current version named Industry Code ACIF C555:2007 Integrated Public Number Database (IPND), and includes the current name of the organisation that publishes the industry code, the Communications Alliance Limited.

 

Item 6

Item 6 amends the note under subsection 24 (3) by removing the reference to the use of the Alternate Address Flag in the IPND. This practice is now formalised in the new subsection 24A(3).

 

Item 7

Item 7 adds a new subsection 24A(3) that provides that where there is an obligation under paragraph 24(3)(b) to advise the IPND Manager that the service may not be at that location, or that an emergency call using the service may be of uncertain origin, that obligation may be satisfied by setting the Alternate Address Flag to ‘True’.

 

Item 8

Item 8 adds a new section 24A that places obligations on carriage service providers that supply a location independent communications service (LICS) in respect of each customer who has been issued with a public number in accordance with the Telecommunications Numbering Plan 1997. Section 24A closely mirrors section 24.

 

Under subsection 24A(2) the provider must ensure that the IPND Manager receives:  

  • The customer’s name;
  • correct information about the current location of the service, to the extent that the provider knows the location;
  • advice that the service may not be at that location, or that an emergency call made using the service may be of uncertain origin; and
  • if the customer has multiple services—a contact number of the customer.

Public numbers are not issued to the end-users of dialout-only VoIP services by their carriage service provider, hence section 24A does not apply to dialout-only VoIP providers.

 

Subsection 24A(3) provides that a carriage service provider is able to indicate that the location of a fixed local service is uncertain by setting the Alternate Address flag to “True” in the record provided to the IPND Manager for that service.

 

If the provider first supplies the service after the commencement of this Determination then, under subsection 24A(4), the provider must comply with subsections 24A(2) and 24A(3) before the end of the next business day after starting to supply the service.

 

Subsection 24A(5) requires a provider to make arrangements to ensure that information received by the IPND Manager is as accurate as practicable at all times.  This includes accurate postcode information, which is particularly important in helping an emergency call person decide to which emergency service organisation an emergency call should be transferred.

 

If a change to the service is made which affects the information the provider has given, the provider supplying the service must ensure under subsection 24A(6) that the IPND Manager is informed about the change before the end of the next business day after the change is made.  Such a change could include a different carriage service provider or intermediary supplying the service, or a new customer replacing the previous customer of the service.  Similarly, under subsection 24A(7), if a provider ceases to supply a service, the provider must ensure that the IPND Manager is informed that it has ceased to supply the service by the end of the next business day after ceasing to supply the service.

 

Subsection 24A(8) requires the IPND Manager to inform the emergency call person for 000 and 112, about such changes within 24 hours after the IPND Manager is informed of the changes.

 

Item 9 

Item 9 substitutes subsections 30 (2), (3), (4) and (5) with new subsections (30) (2), (3) and (4), and removes the notes. Section 30 concerns the giving of information to the emergency call person identifying the calling number:

  • under subsection 30(2) the provider of a public mobile telecommunications service or a location independent communications service is not required to give the calling number if it is unable to identify the number from which the call was made;
  • however, under subsection 30(3) the provider of a public mobile telecommunications service, a satellite service or a location independent communications service must pass on all the relevant information about the caller’s approximate location based on the standardised mobile service area (SMSA) code; and
  • subsection 30(4), applying to fixed local services, mirrors the old 30(5) but with the reference document for the SMSA codes updated. 

 

The new subsection 30(2) applies to a public mobile telecommunications service which is defined in section 32 of the Telecommunications Act 1997.  The former subsection 30(2), that refers to “a digital mobile telephone without a SIM card”, is redundant since a SIM-less service is a public mobile telecommunications service and is therefore replaced by the new subsection 30(2).

 

Dictionary

Item 10 

Item 10 inserts the definition of ACMA which means the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

 

Item 11 

Item 11 inserts the definition of Alternate Address Flag.  The Alternate Address Flag is the field in the IPND that provides information about whether or not the physical location of a caller may reliably be at the address provided to the IPND Manager for the service.

 

Item 12 

Item 12 inserts the definition of location independent communications service and adds notes 1 and 2. The definition covers carriage services  that

  • are capable of voice telephony
  • are neither a fixed local service, a public mobile telecommunications service nor a satellite service; and
  • for a call to 000 or 106 — identify a point of termination for the call.

 

It is intended that the definition include all VoIP services that have both dialin and dialout functionality and that are potentially nomadic in character.  The definition is not intended to capture VoIP services that have dialout-only functionality.  This is because, on their own, dialout-only VoIP services are unlikely to be a standard telephone service under section 6 of the TCPSS Act.  Such services provide only limited connectivity and it is unclear if they will pass the any-to-any connectivity test under subsection 6(2) of that Act.

 

The same term is used in the Numbering Plan, so Note 2 explains that the definition is different from the one which is contained in the Numbering Plan. It is intended that the definition in item 12 covers services for which geographic numbers have been issued, services for which 0550 numbers have been issued and services for which no public number has been issued.

 

The capacity to identify “a point of termination for the call” is equivalent to the capacity to connect the caller with a dialled number on the PSTN.

 

The LICS definition is framed such that of VoIP service accessing the network by a satellite or mobile phone connection is deemed to be a satellite service or public mobile telecommunications service, respectively.

 

Item 13 

Item 13 adds to the examples of standard emergency telephone services. A standard telephone service or location independent communications service that an end-user would reasonably expect to use, as a first choice, to make an emergency call, except a short messaging service.  As the note to this definition makes clear, this includes local access services, public mobile telecommunications services, listed carriage services supplied by a carriage service intermediary, text telephony for a person who is unable to use voice telephony, certain satellite services, public payphones and location independent communications services.

 

Item 14 

Item 14 amends the note after definition of state or territory emergency service relating to expressions used in the Determination that are defined in section 7 of the Telecommunications Act 1997, and imported into the TCPSS Act. It replaces

  • ACA (the Australian Communications Authority)
  • access (in relation to an emergency call service)

with

  • access (in relation to an emergency call service)
  • ACMA (the Australian Communications and Media Authority)

 

Item 15 

Item 15 amends the note after definition of state or territory emergency service relating to expressions used in the Determination that are defined in section 7 of the Telecommunications Act 1997, and imported into the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act 1999. It inserts

  • standard telephone service

immediately after

  • recognised person who operates an emergency call service

 

Item 16 

Item 16 is a house-keeping amendment that sets out a table detailing where ACA is replaced with ACMA in the Determination. ACMA came into existence on 1 July 2005 as a result of the merger of the Australian Communications Authority (ACA) and the Australian Broadcasting Authority.

 

 

 

 

[1] The VoIP Report is available online at: http://www.dcita.gov.au/communications_for_consumers/telephone_services/emerging_voice_services

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