Microsoft, Google and the European Emergency Number Association (EENA) published today a joint position paper on the provisions of the proposed European Electronic Communications Code (EECC) referring to access to emergency services from over-the-top players (OTTs).

Summary:
The signatories welcome the proposal but would like to highlight some points necessary to understand the mandate on OTTs to provide access to emergency services:

  • Access to 112 from OTTs represents a minor percentage of emergency calls. When it comes to access to emergency services, stronger attention should be given to higher priorities, such as improving the accuracy of caller location for calls originating from mobile phones.
  • A mandate on access to 112 from OTTs can be implemented only if there is one single end-point in each Member State. This would imply important changes in the organisation of many countries in the way they handle emergency calls.
  • Reliability of calls to 112 should be guaranteed in order to make sure that calls to emergency services will go through.
  • There should be clear exemptions for services for which these obligations are simply not practical or relevant (e.g. emails).

Find the Joint Position Paper on the RELATED DOCUMENTS sidebar.