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999 a free service for public, says Telekom. |
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Friday, 21 September 2007 |
Kuala Lumpur, 15 Jun (The New Straits Time) -- Telekom Malaysia Bhd has denied demanding RM500 million to RM1 billion a year to allow police direct access to its emergency calls and subscriber database.
In a statement issued yesterday, Telekom said it had agreed to give caller information for emergency calls on a call-by-call basis.
"Customer numbers and details change every day and it is important that these changes are reflected in the database in real-time. It is on this basis that all other licensees also agreed to give caller information on call-by-call basis for emergency calls," it said.
The statement was in reference to an article in the New Straits Times on Tuesday with the headline "Telekom wins control of 999 line".
The article had said that the national utility had convinced senior government officials that it could not give police direct access to emergency calls and its subscriber database unless it was paid between RM500 million and RM1 billion a year.
The statement said the total subscriber base involved was about 24 million and Telekom only owned approximately four million fixed-line customers out of that total number.
It said the company had seven emergency services centres and incurred an average operational expenditure of RM4.1 million per year in running them.
"As part of TM’s social obligation, 999 emergency service is provided free of charge to the public, while the service in Sarawak and parts of Selangor is managed by the police."
It added that Telekom had been working with the police with regard to emergency calls for more than 30 years. Of the 43,000 calls it received a day, on average, only one per cent were genuine distress calls while 99 per cent were crank calls.
"We see our role as value-adding to the police and other emergency service providers as we provide the filtering process to ensure that only genuine distress calls are handed over to them."
In terms of response time, it said Telekom staff manning the emergency service centres took six seconds to verify the calls received by asking four standard questions — name of the caller, details of the emergency, location and verifying the telephone number.
It took another 10 seconds to call, transfer and hand over the call to the relevant emergency service provider.
"Based on last year’s data, 98 per cent of the calls were answered within 10 seconds, meeting the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission’s guideline of 90 per cent of calls answered within 10 seconds.
"Once a call is handed over to the relevant emergency service provider, the time and action taken to respond by the emergency service providers are not within Telekom’s control."
It also clarified that 999 was not a hunting line and calls coming in were not put on queue. The calls were handled by emergency service centre staff.
"With continued support from the emergency service providers and the public, we can look forward to further improving the service for the benefit of all," the statement said. |
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Last Updated ( Friday, 18 January 2008 )
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