Calls to Ireland's emergency calls system rose by as much as 50pc this
year because of a smartphone glitch that causes mistaken calls from pockets.
According to new figures from the telecoms regulator, emergency call
answering services (Ecas) this year rose 23pc overall because of the
glitch, but the problem has been steadily increasing during the year as
tech companies fail to deal with the issue.
In June, the number of emergency calls was 50pc higher than a year
before, with 255,604 emergency calls made during the month - 85,545 more
than in June last year.
It could get even worse, as Samsung, the main Android smartphone brand
creating the calls, struggles to turn the emergency call trigger off.
"ComReg understands that the increase in Ecas call volumes has been
caused by a software issue on certain Android phones and that updates
are being developed by manufacturers to address this issue," a
spokesperson for the telecoms regulator told the Irish Independent.
"This issue is not unique to Ireland and has been seen in other
jurisdictions."
Aspokesperson FORAN Garda Síochána, which has received criticism in
recent months for not responding promptly to emergency calls, said they
could not comment on the issue.
A spokeswoman for the HSE, which deals with ambulance calls, said calls
were up.
"There was an average of 30 extra emergency calls every day when comparing
May 2022 and May 2023," she said. "999 calls are clinically triaged and
prioritised to ensure that those patients with life-threatening injuries
or conditions receive the fastest response possible."
The spokesperson added that response times, once the calls were taken,
were "broadly on a par" with last year, and that its service had not
been affected.
The issue has alarmed safety groups across Europe, with the European
Emergency Number Association, which represents all EU 112 operations,
issuing a statement condemning the "surge in automatic false calls
originating from Android devices".
In Ireland, calling 112 or 999 connects the phone to the emergency
services operator, which is handled by BT Ireland on behalf of the
government. BT Ireland's human operators then assign the calls to the
correct emergency service based on the nature of the call. However, the
operator is obliged to pay attention to "silent" calls in case they
represent an emergency where the caller is unable to speak, such as a
domestic dispute, a robbery or a crash.
A spokesperson for BT Ireland told the Irish Independent it was trying
to deal with the Android miscalling issue.
"There has been an increase in accidental calls and automatic false
calls," the spokesperson said. "BT Ireland handles all calls into the
service and we do not pass these accidental calls through to the
emergency services."
However, the spokesperson was unable to say what level of disruption the
accidental calls were causing to the emergency calls process.
The problem is primarily an issue for Android smartphones. If the power
button is rapidly pressed repeatedly, it triggers an emergency call.
In Ireland, the most popular Android manufacturer is Samsung, with
around 40pc of the smartphone market here.
A spokesperson for Samsung told the Irish Independent the company was
aware of the problem.
"We have taken action through issuing a software update to Samsung
devices running Android 13 to reduce accidental 999 calls," the
spokesperson said.
"The software update has been rolled out starting early June and we
highly encourage customers to update their devices with the latest
software when available."
Last year, Apple ran into a similar problem on a smaller scale with a
new crash detection feature on its iPhones. In a small number of cases,
the feature was triggering calls to emergency services from individuals
on roller-coasters and other sports and leisure activities.
Some smartphones have feature that automatically calls 999
Irish Independent
===========================================================
The fb-exchange mailing list
Manage account,
List Page: https://www.freelists.org/list/fb-exchange
Archive: https://www.freelists.org/archive/fb-exchange
To unsubscribe: log onto the List page and select "Unsubscribe".
Administrative contact: insight@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
===========================================================
