999 Emergency Calls Taken Over By BT

Thursday, 21 October 2010 08:53

Written by Pat Flynn

The handover of the 999/112 emergency call service from Eircom to British Telecom (BT) is expected to be completed in time for it's launch by the end of the month, The Clare Herald has learned.

While BT won the contract and assumed responsibility for the service late last year, a process of migrating the 999/112 service to the new operator has continued for the past 12 months. This migration is expected to be completed by the end of October.

Following the introduction of the Communications Regulation (Amendment) Act of 2007, the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources tendered for a supplier to provide the Emergency Call Answering Service (ECAS) in Ireland. In May 2009, on completion of that open tender process, BT and Conduit were awarded the contract to provide 112 and 999 emergency call answering services on behalf of the State.

BT says it's investment in the service will be worth €10m while one hundred new jobs will be created in call centres at three locations around the country - Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal, Navan, Co. Meath and East Point Business Park in Dublin. The contract will see BT Ireland operate the service for the next five years and with around five million emergency calls made in Ireland every year, the deal could be worth as much as €11m per annum the the company.

An Eircom spokeswoman confirmed: "We are currently operating the service out of centres in Dublin and Mullingar. Eircom is currently in the process of migrating the 999/112 emergency call services to BT. This process is scheduled to be completed by the end of October. Eircom is continuing to support the service until the migration process has been completed."

British Telecom has been reluctant to divulge any details about the arrangement and would only say: "The Emergency Call Answering Service is currently being transitioned, and we'll be in a position to provide further details when it is ready for launch."

A number of changes to the service will also be introduced including a facility where someone is unable to accurately state their location, their mobile phone will located automatically using GPS technology.

Calls are also required to be handled in English and Irish while Conduit employ a certain number of multilingual staff to deal with calls in other languages.

The contract is effectively paid for by telephone service providers who must pay a fee of €2.23 per emergency call. The service is monitored by communications regulator ComReg, which reviews the fee annually.

The frontline services which can be contacted through the 999/112 operators are the Garda, Ambulance, Fire Service, Coast Guard and Mountain Rescue.