T-MOBILE GHOST CALLS

QUESTION – WHICH OF THESE ARE REAL? Easter bunny (A) Bigfoot (B) Santa Clause (C) T-MOBILE Ghost Calls (D) None of the above (E)

ANSWER None of them are real!

QUESTION – DID YOU SEE THIS STORY? Evil T-MOBILE floods Dallas 9-1-1 call center with Ghost Calls that endanger citizens of Dallas and overwhelms call takers Yes (A) No (B)

QUESTION – DID YOU SEE THIS STORY? Dallas Mayor retracts blame of T-MOBILE and says “staff has misled us for years” regarding staffing & problems at 9-1-1 call center Yes (A) No (B)

QUESTIONS This is all so confusing – who do we believe? If Ghost Calls are not real what happened? If its not TMOB’s fault who is to blame? What did the mayor mean about being “misled us for years?” How did we get to this point?

GOALS FOR TODAY’S SESSION The people in this room must understand what happened because none of us can afford to repeat the mistakes that were made in Dallas Might take an hour of your time, but this is important Need your input and help Follow the steps I took in looking for answers

GOALS FOR TODAY’S SESSION Explain Ghost Calls – fact vs. fiction Offer a possible explanation of what happened Explain the fallout in TC 9-1-1 from the mess in Dallas Offer suggestions going forward

KEVIN’S CLUES ABOUT GHOST CALLS TMOB only South Dallas only Happens only when calls are in queue

ROADMAP TO SOLUTION Find out who calls 9-1-1 These are the callers who end up in queue Find out what happens when 9-1-1 callers are in queue Look at the few facts we have about Dallas Draw conclusions and develop recommendations

WHO CALLS 9-1-1? 5,000 – 6,000 per day Seasonal – higher in summer and lower in winter 84% come from cell phones 8% from NSI cell phones (9-1-1 Area Code)

WHO CALLS 9-1-1? 9-1-1 calls in my city are evenly divided among all neighborhoods in the city (A) 9-1-1 calls in my city are not evenly divided among all neighborhoods – some of my neighborhoods register very few 9-1-1 calls while we get a lot from other neighborhoods (B)

WHO CALLS 9-1-1? Most 9-1-1 calls in my city come from people in the upper income groups (A) Most 9-1-1 calls in my city come from people in the lower income groups (B) 9-1-1 calls in my city are about evenly split between all income groups (C)

WHO CALLS 9-1-1? Most 9-1-1 calls in my city come from people in the higher education groups (college plus) (A) Most 9-1-1 calls in my city come from people in the lower education groups (high school or lower) (B) 9-1-1 calls in my city are about evenly split between all education groups (C)

ESTIMATED CELL PHONES BY CARRIER IN TARRANT COUNTY 9-1-1 Total Cell Phones – 1,980,000 ATTMO = 33% VZW = 30% TMOB = 27% SPPCS = 10%

WHICH CARRIER NETWORK CALLS 9-1-1 THE MOST? ATTMO (A) SPPCS (B) TMOB (C) VZW (D)

ACTUAL 9-1-1 CALLS BY CARRIER IN TARRANT COUNTY 9-1-1 TMOB                   41.3%  ATTMO                 36.0%  SPPCS                   14.4%  VZW                        8.3%

WHY SO MANY 9-1-1 CALLLS FROM TMOB? Metro PCS started in 2007 & had a big impact here Metro PCS serves lower income customers who cannot afford or don’t have good enough credit for traditional “post pay” plans from traditional carriers 2 years ago TMOB bought Metro PCS 9-1-1 calls from Metro PCS customers are included in the TMOB calls Remember the 8% NSI cell phones?

PROFILE OF 9-1-1 FREQUENT CALLERS Probably calling from an economically depressed neighborhood Probably lower income Probably lower education Probably using a MPCSI cell phone which shows TMOB

KEVIN’S CLUES ABOUT GHOST CALLS TMOB only South Dallas only Happens only when calls are in queue

“QUEUE EFFECT” Customers in ACD queue are likely to hang up and call back if calls not answered quickly This is true even if the recording says “do not hang up – your call will be answered in the order received”

“QUEUE EFFECT” FOR 9-1-1 CALLS Southwest Airlines does not try to call you back if you abandon in their queue Most PSAP’s attempt to call back all callers to 9-1-1 who abandon in queue If a PSAP is understaffed this policy compounds the staffing problem by driving more calls into queue

“QUEUE EFFECT” FOR 9-1-1 CALLS At any given time most of your callers are TMOB If calls go into queue then most of your callers in queue are TMOB

“QUEUE EFFECT” FOR 9-1-1 CALLS Why would callers in 9-1-1 queue hang up and call back? Language issue? Not familiar with queue? Judgement impaired?

WHICH CARRIER NETWORK CALLERS ARE MOST LIKELY TO HANG UP IN QUEUE AND CALL BACK? ATTMO (A) SPPCS (B) TMOB (C) VZW (D)

“QUEUE EFFECT” FOR 9-1-1 CALLS Majority TMOB 9-1-1 calls Majority TMOB in queue TMOB majority hang up & call back

“QUEUE EFFECT” FOR 9-1-1 CALLS “But Bill that couldn’t happen here – our time spent in queue isn’t high enough to support a flood of calls” No it could not happen here! In May only 3 calls spent 3 minutes in queue But what if we traveled to another planet . . .

“QUEUE EFFECT” FOR 9-1-1 CALLS ON ANOTHER PLANET Very big city – over 90 call take positions 100 trunks with 100 queue slots Unbelievably understaffed 2nd shift on Friday & Saturday nights had calls in queue all shift Most calls were in queue 20 minutes or longer

“QUEUE EFFECT” FOR 9-1-1 CALLS ON ANOTHER PLANET Majority TMOB 9-1-1 calls Majority TMOB in queue TMOB majority hang up & call back

“QUEUE EFFECT” FOR 9-1-1 CALLS ON ANOTHER PLANET TMOB callers most likely to hang up and call back VZW, ATTMO & SPPCS less likely to hang up and call back so their calls clear Analysis of call data for that entire shift shows what? Flood of TMOB Ghost Calls!

DALLAS 9-1-1 7th largest city in USA (public record) Over 90 call take positions (public record) 100 trunks with 100 queue slots (public record) Very understaffed (Dallas Morning News editorial) Some calls were in queue 20 minutes (TV interview with man whose husband died)

DALLAS 9-1-1 What did the mayor mean when he said “staff has misled us for years?” How bad the 9-1-1 staffing really was (Dallas Morning News editorial) Handout – excerpt from Dallas Morning News - March 20, 2017 ESIF conference – May 2017

GHOST CALLS REALLY QUEUE EFFECT Callers who call 9-1-1 and abandon the call and then call back later Can and do happen on all wireless networks TMOB stood out because most 9-1-1 calls come from TMOB Long times in queue magnify the problem

QUESTIONS SO FAR?

QUESTION? I think I understand Ghost Calls and what happened in Dallas Yes (A) No (B)

FALLOUT #1 “But they’re Ghost Calls . . . there’s nothing we can do about them . . .”

RECOMMENDATION #1 Please make sure all call takers know that Ghost Calls are not real Please make sure that if you are having a problem PLEASE call someone here That’s why we are here

FALLOUT #2 “Council wants to know what we can do to make sure what happened in Dallas does not happen here . . .”

RECOMMENDATION #2 Make sure your staffing does not reach critical point Share ASA with your boss and all the way up to Council If Dallas Council had been monitoring ASA for the past 4 years do you think this would have been avoided?

LAST CHANCE FOR QUESTIONS?

GOALS FOR TODAY’S SESSION Explain Ghost Calls – fact vs. fiction Offer a possible explanation of what happened Explain the fallout from mess in Dallas in TC 9-1-1 Offer suggestions going forward

QUESTION? Did we meet the goals for today’s session? Yes (A) No (B)

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