O2 challenges ComReg's charge increase for 999 calls

TELECOMMUNICATIONS operator O2 has brought a legal challenge to a decision by the telecommunications regulator allowing the handling charges for 999 or emergency calls here to be increased to a maximum €3.35 a call.

More than 3.3 million emergency calls were made in the State last year, which are handled by the Emergency Call Answering Service operator (Ecas).

BT Communications (Ireland) Ltd is the current Ecas operator. It won a five-year contract in 2009 worth some €50 million from the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources to provide that service following a public tendering process.

The Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) last January announced that the maximum charge which the Ecas operator can impose on telecommunications providers for each emergency call in the year to February 2010 was being increased to €3.35 a call.

O2 has brought a legal challenge to that decision. It claims that when BT entered the contract in 2009 to be Ecas operator, the initial maximum handling fee for emergency calls – 999 and 112 calls – was €2.23.

The ComReg decision allowing that charge to be increased to €3.35 was outside the powers of the regulator and was made under the incorrect statutory provision, it is claimed.

When the proceedings came before Mr Justice Peter Kelly at the Commercial Court yesterday, he heard that there is a dispute related to whether and how the ComReg decision may be appealed and about whether the relevant EU directive has been effectively transposed in Ireland.

The judge also heard that issues arose over the absence here of an independent and appropriately qualified appeals body to review decisions of the regulator.

Mr Justice Kelly said the wider issues raised could not be addressed at this stage but he would transfer the proceedings for the purpose of being fast-tracked in the Commercial Court. He listed the matter for next month.