Dial 999

Another story to the origibns of 999.

On the old rotary dial phones, the number 0 was next to the stop and next to that, going clockwise was 9.
In the event of a fire when you couldn't see the numbers on the phone because of smoke, it would be easy to find the 9 and dial 999
Of course they seem to have forgotten that if you couldn't see the numbers on the phone due to smoke, you probably couldn't find the phone. And fs the smoke was so thick you would probably be unconciouse after inhaling a couple of lungfuls.
 
knip said:
When I had to ring 999 at Christmas time, the first responder who came said that if you are calling on a mobile phone then to use 112 because it gets you put through to the nearest call centre, however it makes no difference on a landline, just a mobile.
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I'm pretty sure this isn't the case, but I can easily find out.
 
999 on a mobile will be directed to the emergency centre in the area you are calling from. Its generally very accurate - for instance if you call about an Incident in Lowestoft (Suffolk) But have driven for only just a few mins into Gorleston (Norfolk) you will be put through to the Norfolk emergency services. It's not fool proof but generally very accurate and done on the triangulation of mobile signal.
 
I heard something about being able to ring 112 in areas such as Dover and sometimes being put through to the French emergency services. They must all speak English as a requirement for this. I never bothered to look into it more though.

Also, apparently with a speakerphone mobile the operator can switch your 'speaker' on if need be. The guy who told me this said he accidentally rang when the phone was in his pocket, and it was only when the speaker was activated that he heard it. I've no idea if this is possible, as I imagine a common standard would have to be followed by mobile manufacturers.
 
Lethal` said:
Also, apparently with a speakerphone mobile the operator can switch your 'speaker' on if need be. The guy who told me this said he accidentally rang when the phone was in his pocket, and it was only when the speaker was activated that he heard it. I've no idea if this is possible, as I imagine a common standard would have to be followed by mobile manufacturers.
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This isn't true.
 
This is almost as bad as the last myth that went flying around recently.

Put your Pin in backwards if someone is mugging you at an ATM and they will auto send help.

The look on my Aunties face when I said "What if my pin is 1111" was priceless.
 
knip said:
When I had to ring 999 at Christmas time, the first responder who came said that if you are calling on a mobile phone then to use 112 because it gets you put through to the nearest call centre, however it makes no difference on a landline, just a mobile.

I also took some kids on a "lifeskills" day recently, where they were told to do the same thing. :)

I guess it might mean any unusual spelling of places might be more easily understood because that person would be local (ish)
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I would imagine this would mean nearest Operator Service so if you were in Wales somewhere and your phone network is handled BT it would pass you to Bangor.
 
It was some years ago but I used to take 999 calls at the BT operator centre in Leicester. When the call presented the system at the time (BTOSS) would provide the location information from the CLI and it was displayed. We connected the call to the relevant service in the order that it was asked for. The system pulled up the details for the emergency centre applicable to the location info. we then put the call through and monitored the call until the location had been confirmed.

From mobiles at the time, the system would bring up the control centre details closest to where it thought the mobile was. That wasn't always possible and we had procedures for that eventuality.

The network would try and route you to your local centre regardless of whether you dialled 112 or 999, but if all operators were busy it was given to the first available nationwide. We knew if they had dialled 112 or 999 but they were both treated the same.

To be honest it was the best job I ever had and had the centre not have closed, I would probably still be doing it. Imagine the stress levels though when you have someone that is in a serious situation, they have asked for an ambulance, I am trying to connect and hearing, "You are through to (insert ambulance authority's name here, I wont embarrass them) ambulance service, we are extremely busy, please hold the line.

Saturday nights and bank holidays were always fun.
 
Meridian said:
As for 112, I understand that it picked up differently to 999 in the UK. The most important difference is that (I believe) if you dial 999 on a mobile it goes through your service provider, but 112 will pick up the nearest service provider out of all of them and use that. Useful in areas where signal can be bad.


M
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That's rubbish.
999 get prioritised over all other traffic and will use any network available - so if you're with Orange but have no signal then it'll try Vodaphone/3/etc..
Accordingly, you can also make 999 calls from a landline that isn't in service.
 
tsgray70 said:
. Imagine the stress levels though when you have someone that is in a serious situation, they have asked for an ambulance, I am trying to connect and hearing, "You are through to (insert ambulance authority's name here, I wont embarrass them) ambulance service, we are extremely busy, please hold the line.
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I would say that's either LAS or WMAS :p
 
I do also think that the public really do need to be educated about calling 999, theres a lot of ignorance out there (Not relating to any post here)

a lot of people seem to think as soon as the call hits the stack (Sorry a control term - meaning as soon as the call is answered by an agent it's assigned a case number on what is called 'Pre Alert' - The bit before an address is entered into the CAD System) that we have an Ambulance on the way on Blues, a lot of people also seem to think that we have an Ambulance 2 minutes from every single address in our area. (Sorry ranting a bit)
 
I agree about educating the public though, some of the stuff that people called with is just a joke. Prank/hoax calls are bad enough. But the people that are serious, and yet completely stupid, are really frustrating.
 
Never knew there were other emergency numbers than 112 until I had a mobile, where I could input 911, 08, and 112 if the phone was locked. The only emergency number ( I knew of) here is 112.
 
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... Like the guy from Lincolnshire, (which is completely flat), calling and asking for Mountain Rescue because his kid had got out of his bedroom window and was sitting on the flat roof.

...Or people calling in bomb threats from payphones. Although I did get one once from an Irish payphone and the caller gave a codeword, that really wakes you up.

...People asking for an ambulance which we all know they are using as a taxi and will get out at A&E

...and many, many more.

I always used to feel sorry for the old lady that used to call 999 every night to say goodnight to us. I think that we were the only people she got to speak to.
 
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