112 vs 999
in [UK Mobile]
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From: MB on 25 May 2010 07:48 On 22/05/2010 13:24, Whiskers wrote: > On 2010-05-21, tony sayer<tony(a)bancom.co.uk> wrote: >>>> Ever heard of Triangulation for mobile phones?.. > > [...] > >>> [1] I believe sea or mountain rescuers have been known to 'home in' on the >>> signal from a mobile phone, once they've got close enough to detect it. >>> Using a portable 'base station' is the latest trick in that particular >>> book >>> <http://pistehors.com/news/ski/comments/0985-spooks-gadget-could-revolutionize- >>> mountain-rescue/> >> >> You'd think that people up in the mountains would be rather aware of a >> device that could do that in times of distress but then again Joe >> Publicke eh;?.. >> >> >>> Even an LED 'camera flash' has helped a rescue >>> <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/3993325.stm>. > > In my day, we had whistles. > There is a device that you can buy that operates via satellite - not EPIRB. You pay an annual rental like a mobile phone and can press an "OK" button that sends your position which can be viewed online by relatives or friends, if you press the alarm button they notify the nearest rescue organisation (anywhere in the world). A few years ago someone was taken ill whilst walking across Scotland coast to coast, he has in an area not served by mobile phone so the device probably saved his life. You get odd complaints about people being too quick to dial 999 when in trouble but it is now quite common for our local MRT to not have to go up to rescue someone because the SAR helicopter is able to go straight to them and pick them up. In the past they would not be noticed overdue until much later so there could have been a major overnight search for them.
From: Whiskers on 25 May 2010 09:52 On 2010-05-24, Chris <me(a)privacy.net> wrote: > Peter Whisker <pw1(a)adsl24.co.uk> wrote: >> Zaz <zaz(a)zaz.zaz> wrote in news:q8VIn.12977$dh7.646(a)newsfe13.ams2: [...] >> In the UK and Ireland, 999 and 112 are identical. 112 works across Europe >> even where they may have a different local number. >> > 999 does as well. It's the same. > But why don't you use 08? It's shorter :-) Three digits are less likely to be dialled accidentally than two. In the UK, 08 is the start of a great many numbers, so would be a very bad choice for emergencies! > Or maybe 911, if you want to do it the American way... The UK chose 999 because it was easy to dial by touch on the old rotary dial telephones and unlikely to be dialed by accident. The Americans couldn't tolerate dialing the same number as the Brits so chose something else when they copied the idea. > Those numbers are all doing the same - they're triggering the emergency > call. > Chris Yup. On modern push-button dials, 555 would be the easiest code to dial - there's often a tactile 'pip' on the 5 button. I believe it is used within some large private networks. -- -- ^^^^^^^^^^ -- Whiskers -- ~~~~~~~~~~
From: mcp on 25 May 2010 14:25 On Tue, 25 May 2010 14:52:22 +0100, Whiskers <catwheezel(a)operamail.com> wrote: >Yup. On modern push-button dials, 555 would be the easiest code to dial - >there's often a tactile 'pip' on the 5 button. I believe it is used >within some large private networks. It's also the American area code for fake numbers for TV.
From: Whiskers on 25 May 2010 17:03 On 2010-05-25, Chris <me(a)privacy.net> wrote: > Peter Parry <peter(a)wpp.ltd.uk> wrote: >> On 25 May 2010 16:03:21 GMT, Chris <me(a)privacy.net> wrote: >> >>>Well, it is, however, working. Even in the UK:-) >> >> That must cause significant surprise to anyone trying to call an 0845 >> or 0870 number amongst others. > Why? > The phone would recognice 08 as the emergency-trigger and switch to > emergency-mode (higher priority, any network allowed) if the call is > invoked. > As soon as an aditional number would be entered (e.g. 084 or 087), the > phone would really dial this number and not open an emergency call. > You can easily try this by yourself. > Dialing 08 neihter needs a pin code, nor would it be necessary to release > the keypad lock prior to dialing. 084 or 087 does not work without pin or > released keypad lock, though. > Cheers, > Chris I don't know of any mobile phone handset that uses 'pulse code dialling' - where the dial sends pulses down the wire which cause relays in the exchange (or digital emulations of relays) to make a connection as soon as the user dials the number. But there are still landline phones using that system - the exchanges have to be 'backwards compatible' so that even 60-year-old telephones can still be used. So a UK landline exchange must not assume that the digits 08 are an emergency call - if it did, all the millions of 0845 and 0870 etc numbers wouldn't work! But it seems that mobile digital networks are not constrained in quite the same way. For one thing, pulse code dialling isn't used at all, and for another the user keys in the number required (or calls it up from the handset memory in some way) and then hits the 'call' button to transmit the complete number 'all at once'. I don't know, but I could guess that a digital mobile handset can be programmed to recognise any sequence of key-presses as an emergency call and transmit a 'special emergency code' to the network, rather than 'dialling a number' in the traditional sense. In which case, if the user keys in one of the recognised key sequences, the emergency connection is made; it would make no difference to the network what particular sequence the user actually keyed. -- -- ^^^^^^^^^^ -- Whiskers -- ~~~~~~~~~~
From: Mizter T on 25 May 2010 18:02
On May 19, 7:56 pm, Theo Markettos <theom+n...(a)chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote: > Zaz <z...(a)zaz.zaz> wrote: > > Garbage. The reason for 112's existence is so that all EU member states > > have a universal emergency number. It makes no sense at all to have two > > emergency numbers work in different ways. > > One difference is that many phones will allow you to dial 112 with the > keypad locked, while other emergency numbers require the keypad to be > unlocked. > > (I have no idea if there is country-specific firmware to also allow national > numbers) On the Nokia I'm using at the moment 112, 999 *and* 911 work when the keypad is locked. |