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From: Robert Coates on 19 May 2010 07:43
I was recently told by someone connected with the emergency services
that you should always dial 112 from a mobile rather than 999. The
reason given was that with 112 the operator will know your location
within a matter of metres whereas with 999 they only have a rough idea
where you are calling from.

My gut feeling on hearing this was that it's nonsense.

I, from personal experience about 10 years ago, know they have a rough
idea where you are from which mast you are using. Bitter experience
actually as I was near a county boundary and the operator would no way
connect me to the correct force, insisting on the neighbouring one,
who then had to ring up the correct one and relay a message!

I've done much Googling on this subject but can't find any up to date
info on this.
"enhanced location information" seems to have been introduced about
2004 giving more accurate location info, based on triangulation I
think. But why would this work on 112 and not on 999.

Anyone know for a fact whether what I've been told is truth or
garbage?

From: Whiskers on 19 May 2010 11:41
On 2010-05-19, Robert Coates <bobkoytc(a)googlemail.com> wrote:
> I was recently told by someone connected with the emergency services
> that you should always dial 112 from a mobile rather than 999. The
> reason given was that with 112 the operator will know your location
> within a matter of metres whereas with 999 they only have a rough idea
> where you are calling from.
>
> My gut feeling on hearing this was that it's nonsense.

[...]

> Anyone know for a fact whether what I've been told is truth or
> garbage?

As far as I can tell, 112 and 999 are effectively the same. Whereas the
emergency operator has a frequently updated database matching land-line
numbers to their physical addresses, that's obviously pointless for mobile
numbers.

While it is possible to identify the 'cell' used to make a mobile call,
that is not very accurate (a radius of several yards in the middle of a
city, but possibly a few miles out in the sticks). I can't see how it
makes a difference whether you dial 999 or 112. A mobile caller should
tell the operator as accurately as possible where the emergency is.

Some 'smartphones' are now capable of identifying their own location to a
certain extent, the best probably using an integrated GPS receiver and
mapping application. I don't know if the emergency operator has any way
of tapping into that information as yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if
the emergency services are investigating the possibilites. ("Geolocation"
seems to be the buzzword associated with that sort of thing).

<http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=3218951>
April 3, 2010
Geolocation, your privacy & the future of social networking
Exploring the world of location-aware phone apps
Daniel Ionescu, PC World

<http://www.thesite.org/homelawandmoney/law/crimefacts/999>
Home - Home, Law & Money - Law - Crime Facts - 999 and 112

<http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/archive/oftel/publications/ind_guidelines/emer1002.htm>
An overview of the fixed telephone emergency services (999/112)
9 October 2002

<http://www.ofcom.org.uk/media/news/2004/01/nr1_20040115>
15|01|04 Enhanced 999 facility for mobile phones

<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-205988/Mobile-999-calls-traced.html>
Mobile 999 calls to be traced

<http://kn.theiet.org/magazine/rateit/communications/e999-connexon.cfm>
The Institution of Engineering and Technology
999 – where's your emergency?
Published on 10 March 2010
By Stephen Killen

--
-- ^^^^^^^^^^
-- Whiskers
-- ~~~~~~~~~~
From: Zaz on 19 May 2010 13:23
On Wed, 19 May 2010 04:43:05 -0700, Robert Coates
<bobkoytc(a)googlemail.com> wrote:
> Anyone know for a fact whether what I've been told is truth or garbage?

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.

From: Zaz on 19 May 2010 13:27
On Wed, 19 May 2010 16:41:03 +0100, Whiskers <catwheezel(a)operamail.com>
wrote:
> Some 'smartphones' are now capable of identifying their own location to
> a certain extent, the best probably using an integrated GPS receiver and
> mapping application. I don't know if the emergency operator has any way
> of tapping into that information as yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if
> the emergency services are investigating the possibilites.

There was a story about someone in America that accidentally called 911
from a mobile phone that he had stolen. He was selling drugs and the
operator could hear the conversation and was able to give the police the
caller's exact location.

It didn't say how this was done but I imagine it must be through GPS. I
can't imagine mobile manufacturers didn't consider the possibility of
allowing GPS coordinates to be sent when an emergency call is made.
Unless there were privacy concerns I can't think why this wouldn't have
been implemented.

From: Paulg0 on 19 May 2010 14:57


"Zaz" <zaz(a)zaz.zaz> wrote in message
news:q8VIn.12977$dh7.646(a)newsfe13.ams2...
> On Wed, 19 May 2010 04:43:05 -0700, Robert Coates
> <bobkoytc(a)googlemail.com> wrote:
>> Anyone know for a fact whether what I've been told is truth or garbage?
>
> 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.
>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_telephone_number has information on
this

Paul

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