Simon Waters <simonw@zynet.net> wrote:
On Monday 25 Jul 2005 10:55 am, Peter Corlett wrote: [...]
Does 112 work on non-GSM phones? In most of Europe dialing 112 on any phone on a public phone network, mobile or fixed, should get you an emergency operator.
When I wrote "non-GSM", I actually meant mobile phones in the USA that don't use GSM technology so don't have the obligation to treat 112 as special. [...]
My only concern is the UK government persists in teaching the old (local) 999 number, to avoid confusing the terminally stupid who can't cope with the idea of remembering two emergency numbers.
That's because 999 isn't "the old number". 112 is provided for EU reasons, but is not *the* number for emergency services. 17099 is also available (possibly only from BT lines), presumably as some sort of artifact of BT's routing, but isn't exactly advertised either. (Go on, how many Brits here knew about 17099 before I mentioned it here?)
As a result UK citizens end up either not knowing what to dial when abroad, or having to remember which country they are in when dialing for help.
If you don't even know what country you're in, I don't fancy your chances telling emergency services where you are... -- Of course I lie to people. But I lie altruistically - for our mutual good. The lie is the basic building block of good manners. That may seem mildly shocking to a moralist - but then what isn't? - Quentin Crisp