Telecommunications – Community and National Interests

Angela HoefnagelsPorsche Herbert-FunkJennifer NewtonACMAInternational Training Program11 September 2006

Overview

• Protection of communications• Integrated Public Number Database• Emergency Call Service• Telecommunications and Law Enforcement

Protection of Communications

Angela HoefnagelsSenior Policy Analyst

Prohibitions on disclosure of information

• Part 13 of the Telecommunications Act 1997– confidentiality of information

– disclosure in limited circumstances

– record-keeping requirements

• Covers:– carriers/carriage service providers and employees

– telecommunications contractors and employees

– number-database operators

– emergency call persons

Exceptions from the prohibition• Production of the IPND• Performance of a person’s

duties• Authorisation by law• Witnesses• Law enforcement• ASIO• Assisting the ACMA, the

ACCC or the TIO

• Emergency Calls• Threat to a person’s life or

health• Communications for

maritime purposes• Knowledge or consent of

person concerned• Implicit consent of parties to

a communication• Business needs of other

carriers or service providers

Integrated Public Number Database (IPND)

Angela HoenagelsInternational Training Program11 September 2006ACMA

What is the IPND?

• The Integrated Public Number Database (IPND) was established on 1 July 1998 as a centralised database of information about every public telephone number provided by carriers and carriage service providers, including –– customer name and address;

– service location;

– the associated carriage service provider.

• It contains approximately 46 million records

IPND legislation

• Telstra’s licence conditions: - require Telstra to establish and maintain the IPND; - specify information the IPND must include.

• Telstra has managed the IPND since it was established, although the Minister could ask another person to do so in the future.

• CSPs must:- give the IPND Manager the information it needs to

fulfil its obligations; and- ensure that data is current and accurate.

Use of IPND Data• Restrictions on the use of IPND data is governed by

Part 13 of the Telecommunications Act. • Telstra can only give access to the IPND for approved

purposes, which are listed in its carrier licence conditions.

• The database is mainly used for– Assisting emergency service organisations respond to

emergencies;– Assisting law enforcement agencies with their

investigations; and– Publishing phone number directories.

IPND Data Accuracy Audit• IPND data accuracy is important to emergency service

organisations - they rely on the data to respond to emergency calls quickly.

• ACMA commenced a 3 year program to audit the entire IPND to determine the quality of address data.

• Audit uses Geo-coded National Address File (G-NAF) as a referential database to assess accuracy of data in IPND

• 2005 audit - 91.5% of records had “high or good usability” for service address. This was an improvement of 1.8% on 2004.

• ACMA is working with data providers to:– assess results and correct errors; and– set agreed individual accuracy targets they will be expected to achieve

for the next audit, scheduled for November 2006.

2005 IPND Audit ResultsService Address match to G-NAF

Fixed Services

Mobile Services

Total Services

Comment

Highly accurate (300+)

79.3% 35.2% 59.1% Most address fields used and have perfect match.

High/good usability (200-299)

17.5%

(96.8%)

50.0%

(85.2%)

32.4% (91.5%)

May include highly accurate addresses that require few fields.

Reasonable usability (100-199)

3.0% 13.7% 7.9% Important fields start to fail when matched to G-NAF.

Very poor usability (<100)

0.2% 1.1% 0.6% Suburb and Street Name not matching.

VoIP and the IPND

• Most VoIP services are nomadic.• Location information about VoIP services provided

automatically to emergency service organisations from the IPND may therefore be inaccurate.

• It is a requirement for services that potentially may be at an alternate address (including VoIP services) to be flagged accordingly in the IPND so that the emergency service operator will know they need to ask the caller for location information.

Emergency Call Service

Porsche Herbert-FunkSenior Policy Analyst11 September 2006International Training ProgramACMA

000, 112, 106

• 000 is the primary emergency service number• 112, 106 are secondary emergency service numbers• 106 is specifically for use by deaf or hearing impaired

people – use with teletypewriters• 112 international GSM emergency number

Emergency Call PersonsResponsibility

Telstra for 000 and 112; and

Australian Communications Exchange (ACE) for 106.

Funding

ACE is currently both the NRS provider and 106 emergency call person. 106 is funded through the NRS contract, and the delivery of the service is managed contractually: DCITA enters into the contract; and ACMA administers it.

Telstra is not funded to provide the ECP service.

Call handling – national approach

• Seamless delivery – call appears to the caller to be delivered by a single national emergency system

• Centralised and fully redundant call centres

• This national approach ensures that all emergency service organisations can be contacted in a consistent manner

• People right around Australia only need to remember one number

Regulatory Obligations• Calls to 000 and 112 are answered by Telstra and

transferred to the relevant police, fire or ambulance emergency service organisation (ESO).

• Calls are free of charge. • Access must be provided by providers of the standard

emergency telephone service.• Telstra is required to answer 85 per cent of calls in 5

seconds and 95 per cent of calls in 10 seconds.• Calls to 106 are generally text based and relayed by

ACE to relevant ESOs.

Emergency calls• Call volumes

– 11 million calls per annum to the ECPs

– 4 million calls per annum transferred to ESOs

• Non-genuine emergency calls– Recorded voice announcements (RVAs) and an interactive

voice recognition system (IVR) are successfully dealing with non-genuine emergency calls

– Many calls are non-genuine: misdirected, misdialled, hoax or abusive calls, or calls where a non-emergency response would be sufficient

ECSAC• ACMA’s Emergency Call Service Advisory

Committee (ECSAC) meets twice a year and comprises:– Emergency call persons;

– Emergency service organisations (police, fire and ambulance);

– Government agencies (DCITA and EMA); and

– Consumers.

• ESAC provides advice to ACMA on the operation of the emergency call service.

Emerging technologies

• MoLI - mobile location information

• VoIP - Voice over Internet Protocol

Telecommunications & Law Enforcement

Jennifer Newton

Policy Analyst

International Training Program

11 September 2006

ACMA

Legislative ObligationsC/CSPs must provide “reasonably necessary

assistance” to government agencies for the purposes of:

– enforcing the criminal law;

– protecting the public revenue; or

– safeguarding the national security.

Each carriage service must be capable of being intercepted.

Carriers and any nominated CSPs must submit an annual interception capability plan.

Reasonably Necessary Assistance

Assistance usually involves disclosures of information such as: subscriber checks;

call charge records;

location information for nomadic or mobile services; or

content of communications (i.e. interception).

Terms and Conditions

C/CSPs are to provide assistance to agencies on such terms and conditions as are agreed between them.

In general, assistance is to be provided on the basis that industry should neither profit from, nor bear the cost of, providing it.

Arbitrators may be appointed where parties fail to agree on terms and conditions.

ACMA Role

Enforce industry compliance with legislative obligations through formal warnings, remedial directions or pursuing pecuniary penalties.

Where negotiations between agencies and industry break down, eitherappoint an arbitrator; or

settle the dispute.

Provide guidance on legislative obligations to industry and government.

Identity Checks for Pre-paid Mobiles

CSPs are to verify the identity of their pre-paid mobile customers prior to service activation.

ACMA is reviewing the Telecommunications (Service Provider – Identity Checks for Pre-paid Mobiles) Determination 2000 – to improve its effectiveness in identity checking process and industry compliance

ACMA released a discussion paper in October 2005 and is currently consulting with key stakeholders.

LEAC

ACMA convenes a Law Enforcement Advisory Committee (LEAC) comprising representatives of law enforcement agencies and agencies with national security

responsibilities;

government departments administering the relevant legislation; and

telecommunications industry representatives.

LEAC meets four times each year.

Case Study

Community and national interests obligations in practice

Mr Robbit Mr C. Burglar Ms Leona de Wilde

Mrs Lamb’s house