Mobile Phones and Emergency Calls...please please read, very important

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MadMacher

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Ok this is very useful for anyone that requires the Emergency Services ie. Police, Ambulance, Fire

If you are out and about with your mobile phone and you find that you need to call one of these, please DIAL 112
Not 999

WHY????

Because they pick up where you are with there satalite so they know where you are calling from,

Middle of a field, somewhere on a ride, or even driving away from home on a road you have no idea really where you are!!!!

If you use 112 they can find you without the panic of oh god where am i !!!!

How do I know this useful bit of information....have been on a course today which is all about saftey, and they told us!!

Programme your mobile so you don't forget....it may just save your life one day, or maybe that friend you are out on a hack with!!!!

Merry Christmas to all you guys and girls on here.
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Actually, not sure this is strictly true but there has been plenty of spam about it over the past few months. 112 will only direct you to 999 which you could dial in the first place. It is a GPRS facility, and as 112 is the emergency number for europe, is probably quite useful to remember.

What it DOES do is access any tower that offers a mobile signal, so you don't need to be in an O2 area to make a call for example. The claim that it can locate you is feasible but relatively unlikely that it can be done easily and quickly to any degree of accuracy unless you also have a GPS chipset in your phone. In a rural area, the area that it pinpoints with a standard GSM phone is up to 9km which is quite a wide area to search. 112 should only be used in an emergency (i.e. the same as 999).

It depends on how far you are from the mast as to how accurately your position is reported.
 
Sorry, but that is NOT true. 112 is just the general European emergency service number, and dialling it will get you through to the normal 999 operator, it will not get you through to a secret satellite network. Your phone is located through the cellsite to which you connect, not through a satellite locator !

What IS true is that dialling 999 or 112 can often get you through to the emergency services even if you have no signal on your phone. This is because say you are an Orange customer and you are in an area where there is no Orange coverage but there is e.g O2 coverage, O2 is obliged to carry your 999 call even though you are not one of its clients. It won't carry your ordinary commercial call, but it will carry an emergency call.

Its quite disturbing that someone running a safety course would deliberately spread such mis-information. 999 or 112 will both get you through to the emergency services if any of the 5 mobile networks has a signal in your area, so don't ever think "i can't call 999 - ihaven't got a signal".
 
I recently went on a H&S day and they told us the same about the 112 opposed to 999. Apparently most of the calls during the underground disaster where received on 112 as the 999 signal wasn't effective enough.
 
Thankyou for posting that link. I fail to see how anyone expects a phone to work without a signal, whether you dial 999 112, or 666!!

If you do not have a signal to your own phone network, but have an 'emergency only' signal, you can indeed be put through by dialling 112.
 
I'm also surprised they gave you misinformation on this course. The others on this thread are right in what they say.
 
[ QUOTE ]
chuckles Don't feel so bad - you can't possibly be slower than Dubs!

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Oi!! I am here you know!!
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I actually type twice as fast as I used to, which means that I am now only 10 times slower than you, Miss whizzy fingers.
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Now I do admit to not expecting to meet you on this thread!!
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However now you're here - I'm pleased to read that your typing skills have improved.
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Tia, I have to admit that I was totally surprised at finding my name mentioned in such disparaging terms, while idly and randomly clicking on threads and skimming through them.
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My reading is obviously a lot better than my typing.
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I did not say, it wouldn't get you through to the normal 999 services!
But they can pin point where you are through GPS.

I was told this today on a course run by local police in our area for safety and security whilst out and about!

I am sorry if this post has offended anyone, but I beleive it to be true!


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Your local police are spreading this mis-information??? That makes it even worse. It hasn't offended me, but I am really concerned that they haven't bothered to check their facts. I might write to Wilts Police and tell them they are wrong. It seems that Shel was given the same mis-information, so someone at Wilts Police has obviously got their facts quite badly wrong.

IF (and its a big IF) your phone has a GPS chip then you can be traced through it whether you dial 999, 112 or indeed, your local police non-emergency number. However, MOST phones sold in the UK today do NOT have a GPS chip, your phone can be located by triangulating its location within the cell site, but not via satellite.

112 is not a special number. Calls to it don't go anywhere special. Whether you dial it from a satellite phone in the middle of the Brecon Beacons or from a phone box in Brixton, it still routes your call along ordinary phone lines (or via ordinary satellites in the case of the sat phone!) into the nearest 999 call centre.

I am sorry to harp on this, but it is important. 112 and 99 are both emergency numbers but one is no more special than the other. 112 does not have magic locating facilities.
 
I called 999 the other day after a lorry was dropping huge lumps of wood off it's trailer onto the A1 - emergency services asked me to confirm I was on the A1 southbound side at Colsterworth before asking what the issue was so they obviously can track you on 999 as well
 
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I recently went on a H&S day and they told us the same about the 112 opposed to 999. Apparently most of the calls during the underground disaster where received on 112 as the 999 signal wasn't effective enough.

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The network on London Underground is called TETRA. It is a digital network and is only available for police and other agreed organisations. It cannot be utilised by a normal mobile phone. I cannot see any way that a 112 call could be sent if a 999 call could not be sent - it simply isn't possible. The Met, at the time of the London event, were using a service called Mobitex which again would not have been accessible by anyone using a standard mobile phone (in fact, it is a data only network, so would have been of no use to anyone apart from them).

The company I work for supplies mobile data and location services to over 80% of the UK police forces and also for London Underground on their Connect project.

I am always worried when things like this are spread as gospel by organisations that ought to know better. London Underground even had to issue a press release to say that using mobile phones underground is not possible 99% of the time (I know I have occasionally managed to send a text from certain stations). A lot of these stories have come out as a result of the London bombings.
 
QR - I was also told this on my first aid course. He said that 999 can only find you within 3 miles but 112 could find you within 100 metres of your position. Obviously if you have no signal then no number will work at all. Obviously these people should check their facts first!
 
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