Consultation on a draft Royal Decree and technical annex regarding the implementation of the redundancy system for emergency services

Pursuant to Article 107, paragraph 3, of the Act of 13 June 2005 on electronic communications (hereinafter “the Telecom Act”), operators providing number-based interpersonal electronic communications services must ensure uninterrupted access to emergency services.

Following repeated incidents in the conveyance of emergency calls, it appears that this uninterrupted access is currently not sufficiently guaranteed in practice.

It is necessary to implement redundancy for the conveyance of these emergency calls via the infrastructure of a second operator.

To that end, a new Article 107/1/1 was inserted in the Telecom Act by the Act of 3 May 2024 pertaining to various provisions regarding the economy (I).

This article requires the operators referred to in Article 107, paragraph 3, to implement a “redundancy system for emergency calls” made by their subscribers, following procedures laid down by them. The redundancy system for emergency calls is comprised of two components (paragraph 1):

• The conveyance of emergency calls to emergency services providing on-site assistance via the networks of at least two separate operators, each having at least one physical and logical direct linking with all the call centres for emergency calls (or PSAPs ), called “direct path”;
• The automated and immediate redirection of emergency calls, in case of an incident, from one direct path to another direct part, called “redirection system”.

On principle, each operator referred to in Article 107, paragraph 3, is required to guarantee access to emergency services for its subscribers by means of its own redundancy system for emergency calls.

Therefore, operators must equip their networks with a “redirection system” for emergency calls in the event of an incident and interconnect with at least one other operator with a “direct path” (paragraph 2).

However, in order to ensure that these obligations are proportionate, the proportion of publicly allocated numbers available to the operator is taken into account, so as not to place an excessive burden on the “smallest” operators, particularly as regards interconnection costs.

A reduced obligation is provided for them, allowing them to use the “redundancy system” set up by another operator, rather than having to develop their own system (paragraph 3).

As things stand at present, there is no offer to provide a redundancy system (as defined in paragraph 1 of Article 107/1/1) on the market.

As a consequence, it is up to the King to designate the operators who will be responsible for fulfilling this particular task of general interest by means of a tendering procedure (paragraph 4).

The Minister of the Interior, in collaboration with the Minister of Telecommunications and the Minister of Public Health, is responsible for the organisation, follow-up and monitoring of this tendering procedure.

Prior to this procedure, the following documents must be submitted for public consultation:

• A draft Royal Decree on the implementation of a redundancy system for emergency calls and its Report to the King;
• A draft technical annex.

In addition, in order to specify as precisely as possible the costs that should be covered by the fund for emergency services (paragraph 5), particularly in view of Article 4 of the draft Royal Decree, it would be useful to receive an answer to the questions listed in the consultation document (“Specific questions” under point 1 “Purpose”).

How to react to this document?

• Until 26 September 2025
• Only by e-mail to consultation.sg@bipt.be
• With the reference “CONSULT-2025-B1”
• Contact persons: Ann Fromont, advisor and Sven Homan, engineer-advisor (sven.homan@bipt.be)
• Please attach this cover form to your response.
• Your comments should refer to the paragraphs and/or sections they relate to, and confidential parts should be clearly indicated.