Globe to charge 911 calls to discourage prank calls

Globe Telecom on Wednesday said it was ready to transmit voice calls for the country’s national emergency hotline “911” starting August 1.

But Globe said, in compliance with a government directive, it will charge 911 callers an additional P5.00 on top of regular voice charges to discourage prank calls.

READ: Duterte admin to launch 24-hour hotline in August

“As suggested by the government to discourage prank calls, we would also like to inform our customers that those calling the hotlines will incur regular voice charges plus an additional P5/call for those calling the 911 hotline,” Globe’s general counsel Froilan Castelo said in a statement.

“As a telecommunications provider, Globe recognizes the importance of such communication tool for the government to effectively carry out its initiative for the benefit of the public,” it added.

This, after the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) called on the public not to fool around with the hotline, to fully attend to callers who truly need help in matters of life and death.

Interior Secretary Ismael “Mike” Sueno earlier said that while President Rodrigo Duterte had directed to make 911 free of charge, all calls to the hotline will initially be shouldered by callers until a new memorandum of agreement has been signed by the agencies concerned and a new executive order has been issued.

READ: DILG to public: 911 not for prank calls

Castelo said Globe was expediting the migration of its system to immediately enable the transmission of text messages through the complaint hotline 8888.

“We are confident that we will be able to achieve this target within the time frame of 30-45 days given to us by the government,” he added.

The designation of 911 as the new national emergency hotline was made possible through a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) signed by the DILG Secretary and telecommunications companies which allowed the change of the designated national emergency number.

READ: ‘911’ to be PH’s official emergency hotline by August

The DILG said emergency hotline Patrol 117, 911’s predecessor, received an average of 57 hang and prank calls per hour last year.

Duterte had established a 911 emergency response center in Davao as longtime mayor of the city. CDG