112 deadline looms

Interested parties have two more days to respond to a request for qualification (RFQ) to construct "one or more" Public Emergency Communications Centres (PECC) for the Department of Communications (DOC).

Only vendors that responded to the RFQ process will be invited to tender for the design, maintenance and management of these centres, or to provide them with operational services.

Once built, the centres will allow South Africans to dial "112" toll-free on any telecommunications device to access a range of emergency services.

DOC spokesman Albi Modise says the centres will act as a filter for all emergency calls. People currently have to remember a number of telephone numbers for a range of emergency services. People generally forget these numbers in the heat of the moment.

Therefore, "112" is already extensively used in Europe as an all-emergencies number and it is believed its widespread introduction will assist tourists visiting the country as much as residents. (The US equivalent is the "911" service.)

SA's cellular providers already use the number for their emergency contact centres. The DOC last year expressed the hope of having a more comprehensive system in place by June 2010, in time for the FIFA Soccer World Cup.

The DOC has been tinkering with the concept since 2002 and established a pilot contact centre at the Strand, near Somerset West, in 2004. That centre handles ambulance calls for the Cape metropole.

The DOC was mandated by Section 76 of the Electronic Communications Act, on the books since 2005, to set up the centres. The same section authorises the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) to issue regulations on aspects related to the centres.

ICASA is, meanwhile, collating the views presented to it by telecommunications providers and others at last week's PECC hearings. The hearings were an opportunity to raise comment and concern about ICASA's draft regulations governing the routing and costing of calls to the 112 centres.

Regulations published late last year required all telecommunications providers to take steps to allow such access at their expense, even from fixed and mobile handsets without SIM cards, or that are otherwise blocked, or without airtime.

Spokesman Sekgoela Sekgoela says the oral representations made last week are being transcribed and collated with written arguments. "We are busy consolidating these," he says. "After that there will be a process of deliberation... for us to come up with clear regulations. Once finalised, we will publicise them."

Among the telecoms providers that gave evidence were Neotel and Telkom.

Neotel was concerned about the cost of 112 calls. "...there should be consistency in the cost recovery of the call from the PECC to the emergency service provider. If one operator is able to charge other operators for terminating that leg of the call, then all operators should be able to recover their termination costs. But if the cost of the call from the PECC to the emergency service provider is to be free, no single operator should be able to recover its termination costs for that call, says spokesperson Zinhle Modiselle.

Telkom acting group executive for corporate communication Nabintu Petsana says Telkom did not raise the issue of charges and costs from the public via any network to a PECC. "The company did, however, discuss the bearing of costs of electronic communication that originate at the 112 call centre and terminate at the various emergency organisations.

"In line with section 10(3) of the draft regulations, Telkom proposed that regulation should address the cost of carrying emergency communications and that commercial agreements between operators will be required where more than one licensee carries the 112 emergency request," Petsana says. "These should be finalised between operators."

Telkom also suggested ICASA's regulations be informed by the 112 policy framework; and a 112 stakeholder forum, comprising licensees, the DOC, ICASA, the PECCs and emergency organisations, be formed to ensure the successful implementation of the centres and the readiness to supply service is achieved concurrently.

"Telkom also highlighted the importance of ensuring end-to-end service readiness when the 112 public emergency number is implemented," Petsana adds.

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