First time call failures can have a serious impact on the safety of your telecare services. But housing providers are often unaware of the extent of these issues. Find out what causes the problem, why figures for failed calls are rising and what you should do about this.
A first time call failure (FTCF) occurs when a telecare alarm call is unable to connect to the monitoring centre on the first attempt. This can lead to multiple efforts to make the connection, delaying the emergency response and putting people at risk.
Our at-a-glance guide provides the essential facts about first time call failures, so you can take the right steps to protect your telecare services and the people relying on these.
1. Analogue and digital compatibility issues are resulting in call failures
Some telecare devices are struggling to operate correctly over the digital network. This is because they have been designed to work with analogue telephone lines. But digital uses a different method of communication – and important information can get lost in translation when the analogue signal meets the digital network.
2. These problems are not caused by a fault at the monitoring centre
Issues occur due to the way analogue telecare equipment communicates with the monitoring centre. The telecare alarm call is sent as a series of audible tones but these sometimes get altered when they’re converted to digital. Any changes to the tones themselves or the gaps between the tones mean the monitoring centre is unable to recognise the alarm call, so this will be rejected.
3. Failed telecare alarm calls put people at risk
The telecare device will repeatedly attempt to resend the alarm call until it connects. This can lead to lengthy delays, costing valuable time in an emergency. After a number of attempts, the call may be abandoned altogether, known as ‘Total Call Failure’. The current first time call failure rate is between 11-30%, representing hundreds of thousands of emergency alarm calls with delayed responses.
4. The number of first time call failures are rising…
While there’s no one standard industry figure, reports from different sources highlight how first time call failures have been increasing over the last few years, in parallel with the work on the digital phone switchover (as referenced by the TSA and the government’s Telecare Stakeholder Action Plan, among others).
5. You may not be aware your telecare services are experiencing failed calls
First time call failures can often be a hidden issue. The monitoring centre is unable to see the call failure at the time of occurrence, as this can only be identified during later analysis. And the person making the telecare alarm call doesn’t know this has failed – it just seems as if the call is taking a long time to . This can lead to people repeatedly pressing their emergency alarm, causing even more calls to be sent to the monitoring centre.
6. First time call failure rates vary depending on the telecare equipment in use
Not all analogue equipment uses the same protocols (the language the devices use to communicate), which means failure rates will vary – and can be significantly higher if equipment and/or protocols are particularly vulnerable to compatibility problems.
7. Your call failures are not necessarily due to network changes in your local region
This is because of the way telecare alarm calls are routed: these can travel all over the country across many different parts of the telecoms network, finding the quickest and most cost-effective path at that specific time. As more and more areas are upgraded for the digital phone switchover, it’s becoming increasingly likely alarm calls will meet at least a portion of the new digital network before they reach the monitoring centre.
8. It’s important to understand how your telecare services are being affected by first time call failures
As the issue isn’t always immediately obvious, you need to proactively check the impact on your telecare services. Ask your monitoring centre to provide a report on your first time call failure rate, so you can establish a baseline figure. Keep track of the situation with regular reports going forward.
9. Not all monitoring centres are ready to manage digital equipment
A significant number of monitoring centres have still not upgraded to digital yet, which is restricting some housing providers’ ability to move to digital services. Even if you upgrade your telecare equipment, you need to be sure your monitoring centre is able to deal with this in order to provide a safe and reliable service.
10. An end-to-end digital telecare service is the best way to reduce the risk of first time call failures
The guidance from the telecoms industry, as well as government and industry bodies, is clear: the most reliable solution is to move from analogue to digital telecare. This ensures your telecare services are fully compatible with the digital network, allowing you to provide the safest possible services for your customers.
You can find more details on the issue of first time call failures in our latest guide, which is available to download now: ‘Guide to first time call failures: How to protect your telecare services’.
If you want a pain-free way to transition to digital telecare, we’re here to help. Discuss your requirements and find out about our cost-effective and future proof digital solutions – talk to us today.
