Australian mobile network operators are to start blocking mobile phones that repeatedly make "non-genuine" calls to the emergency phone service, which in Australia is a Triple Zero (000) number. The blocks will be progressive and will only come into effect following repeated warnings to the phone owners.

"This is another good example of the mobile telecommunications industry working with Telstra, as the Emergency Call Person for Triple Zero, to develop industry-wide solutions to tackle the problem of non-genuine calls to Triple Zero," said Chris Chapman, Chairman of the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).

Telstra, given its experience as the Emergency Call Person, has advised that handling of genuine calls is being increasingly compromised by the need to deal with non-genuine calls or calls that do not relate to time critical or life threatening emergencies.

Under the industry initiative, developed in consultation with the ACMA, mobile handsets from which repeated non-genuine calls are made to Triple Zero operators may be blocked across all mobile networks from being able to make calls. Progressive steps will be taken to formally warn the owner of the mobile handset before the handset is blocked, in addition to the caller details being provided to police as appropriate.

Calls to Triple Zero will not be blocked under the initial handset blocking process. However, the ACMA and industry will conduct a review of the industry warning and handset blocking process after six months. This will review the trigger level for initiating the blocking and give consideration to extending the blocking process to include Triple Zero calls by fully disabling the handset.

This initiative has the support of emergency services organisations nationally - police, fire and ambulance services.

As aside, the "Triple Zero" service used to be called "Triple O", but that was dropped as there was concerns that smartphone owners might try to tap the letter O rather than the number zero.