Sound the alarms, folks: the government is putting its feelers out for a new private operator for Triple Zero, the emergency line we all know and love. Communications Minister Mitch Fifield put out a press release announcing the plan this morning:
Here’s the media release announcing plans to hand over the Triple Zero service to a private operator #auspol pic.twitter.com/zefaimT0cL
— Bevan Shields (@BevanShields) October 5, 2016
Quick thing: there’s a lot of chatter about the government ‘privatising’ Triple Zero – this isn’t strictly true. Telstra operates the emergency phone line as a condition of its telecommunications licence and has done so for some time.
But this is the first time it’s been put out to tender to land a possible new operator. The website says that any potential operator will have be “capable of meeting community expectations to be able to contact the ECS anytime, anywhere, easily, quickly and free of charge,” so your dark fantasies of some RoboCop hell where you need to pay to call the cops is probably not coming to fruition.
This could foretell a changes in the way 000 operates – be it technology, mode of operation or the cost of the scheme. The government wants to keep things on the cutting edge here – let’s see how it pans out.
They say that this new EOI process is “the latest step in ensuring all Australians have access to a world-class service which can keep pace with new and innovative technologies”.
Got a bit of coin and think you could run the entire emergency services operation off your beat up old Nokia? Put in a tender, IMO.
Source: Supplied.
Photo: The Simpsons.
