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Telecom New Zealand today welcomed Communications and IT Minister Steven Joyce’s announcement that he will work closely with Telecom and the wider telecommunications industry to review the governance structure and management of the 111 service.
Telecom group chief technology officer, David Havercroft, said a significant amount of work was already under way on a number of fronts relating to Telecom’s part in delivering 111 emergency services, including those mentioned in Mr Joyce’s announcement.
“Overall 111 remains a robust and well managed system, which works to a very high standard the vast majority of the time.
“Telecom’s 111 call centres answer over 2 million calls every year. While TSO obligations require Telecom to answer 85% of all 111 calls within 15 seconds, in practice 95% of all calls are answered within 5 seconds.
“New Zealanders should be confident that 111 is an extremely reliable service, and that Telecom is committed to ensuring the best systems, processes and management are in place to ensure the service continues to meet the very high standards set for it,” Mr Havercroft said.
Mr Havercroft said that Telecom is committed to reviewing the parts of the 111 service it is responsible for delivering, and had made significant progress already.
“Charles Jarvie has been appointed into the newly-created Head of 111 Infrastructure & Operations role. Charles has taken responsibility within Telecom for integrating all of the work already under way into a comprehensive project reviewing all aspects of the operation and management of those parts of the 111 system that Telecom delivers, including the response to events affecting 111 service.
“Charles is one of the most experienced and highly-rated network engineers in our organisation, having worked on and led some of the largest telecommunications projects ever undertaken in New Zealand,” said Mr Havercroft.
Mr Havercroft also said the overall end-to-end 111 system – from when a call is made, right through to when help arrives - does not currently have a single point of accountability, and has not been reviewed in entirety for some time.
“The provision of the 111 service is an important industry issue, as all the emergency services providers, and indeed all telecommunications providers, have a collective interest in ensuring that 111 continues to work at the highest possible standard for New Zealanders.
“The telecommunications environment has changed significantly since the 111 emergency service was developed in 1957, and it is appropriate that the governance, management and operation of 111 is adapted to cope with the emergence of multiple telecommunications companies, and new technologies such as fibre and an even greater reliance on mobile communications.
“Pleasingly, this work is already under way, as evidenced by the roaming MoU signed by the major mobile network providers earlier this year.
“Telecom looks forward to working with government and the wider industry on this issue, to ensure the 111 system continues to be a robust and reliable system that New Zealanders can depend on,” Mr Havercroft said.
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For more information, please call:
Mark Watts, Telecom media relations, 0272 504 018
Key facts about 111
• The TSO requires Telecom to provide the answer and redirect service, known as the Initial Call Answering Point (ICAP), for 111
• This means Telecom is responsible for answering all calls made to 111 and then connecting callers through to their required emergency service, at which point responsibility for the calls is taken over by the relevant emergency service provider’s communications centre
• Telecom’s 111 call centres answer over 2 million calls a year
• Around 48% of all calls to 111 are non-genuine
• TSO obligations require Telecom to answer 85% of all 111 calls within 15 seconds – in practice, 95% of all calls are answered within 5 seconds
• The Telecom 111 staff handle around 5,500 calls from New Zealanders every day
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