I doubt this would change anything other then to add to an already strained police force
‘But unfortunately I don’t think it will make a jot of difference until the police are properly resourced to respond to fraud. It is so difficult to trace these people and so many cases are not investigated.’
That would be interesting, because on PlusNet mobile 555 is the number for the voicemail. I wonder how many calls they’d get from people who just want to check their voicemail …
Many people are already confused as to when they should dial 101, 111, 112 or 999. Or, indeed, what each of them are for.
I know 112 is the Emergency services but is that a global number coz if so why not just 112 as the standard?
Because so many people have grown up with 999 in this country. Both 112 and 999 work here but the latter is familiar.
Probably inertia, you really don’t want people to be struggling to call for emergency services because they forgot the number changed.
I was once told the UK decision to go with 999 was deliberate, back in the days of dial telephones. The actual number being 99 with the final 9 giving time for the operator to be on the line at the instant the third dial rotation ended. I guess rotating dialled 9s also had the advantage of giving time for the caller to get their breath back after running half a mile or more to the public telephone kiosk!
It’s not global but anywhere that uses GSM (or I assume a derivative) will route it correctly to the emergency services.
It was a european standard, but has been adopted by loads of other countries.
It’s not necessarily global. It’s part of the GSM standard, so if you use a GSM phone then it’s global. It’s also mandated by the EU to be valid all over the EU.
As to the question why it’s not really used here: Because the British need to do everything differently from the rest of the world
I wouldn’t necessarily say that
but then again they have a confusing systen
Police 999
Fire Department 997
Ambulance 999
Electricity 991
Water 991
I’m unclear as to what point you’re making here?
Ambulances and Fire Engines all carry 112/999 branding round where I live.
Really? I have never seen that…
A rectangle outline, portrait orientation, 112 above phone symbol and 999 below.
[edit] Correction: it’s 999/111 for ambulance. 999/112 for Fire.
I have never seen that either.
Anyway, I wasn’t making too much of a point. This was very much tongue in cheek (hence the ) I apologise if I offended anyone wit this comment - it wasn’t my intention!
I have never seen that, I’m gonna look out for it next time unless someone in London can confirm.
It happens. A lot.
Look in the post above.
NO!
You were right first time it’s 112 or 999 for all emergency services.
111 is the NON-emergency medical number.
101 is similar for the police.
Either 999 or 112 give access to all emergency services anywhere in the UK. (999 being the UK national number and 112 being the EU common number).
Also on most mobile networks 911 will work, because too many people grew up on US TV