Nuisance emergency callers face phone blocking

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 08 September 2009 11:46

IT Industry - Strategy

He was quoted saying "I'm disturbed by reports from [The South Australian Police], that some people have dialled triple zero to order a pizza or a taxi because their house phone has been disconnected for failure to pay a bill. Other disturbing examples include callers ringing to complain their hot water service has broken down or that they have locked themselves out of their home and thought police had keys to every house in South Australia...It is absolutely disgraceful and unacceptable that these individuals think they can tie up the phone lines when peoples' lives are in serious danger and are desperate for help."

Wright vowed that the SA Police would take any necessary action offenders before the courts, and warned that people caught making vexatious calls to the emergency network faced up to three years in jail."

The ACMA's latest deterrent is mild in comparison. It entails - blocking repeat offenders and has been developed by industry under the auspices of the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA). It provides that repeat offenders are subject to an escalated warning and action process, including account suspension and cancellation.

"This process may ultimately lead to a mobile handset being barred for outbound calls, other than to call the relevant carriage service provider or Triple Zero or 112 [the number to which a mobile phone can make an emergency call even it if has no SIM, no credit or is outside the coverage area of its own network]," the ACMA says. "It is anticipated that withholding the user's normal ability to make and receive calls will cause them to cease their inappropriate use of the emergency call service."

No details have been provided as to the threshold at which punitive action will be triggered. The present register of lost and stolen phones, used by all mobile operators to block those phones from making calls on their networks, will be used to implement the blocking.