From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 999 (emergency telephone number)
999 (emergency telephone number)
used to call the operator), without allowing free use of
numbers involving other digits; other combinations of 9
and 0 were later used for other purposes.
The choice of 999 was because in the dark or in dense
smoke, 999 could be dialled by placing a finger against
the dial stop and rotating the dial to the full extent three
times. This enables all users including the visually im-
paired to easily dial the emergency number. It is also the
case that it is relatively easy for 111, and other low-num-
ber sequences, to be dialled accidentally, including when
transmission wires making momentary contact produce
a pulse similar to dialling (e.g. when overhead cables
A sign on a beach in Whitstable, United Kingdom, advising touch in high winds).[3][4]
readers to dial 999 in the event of an emergency Hoax calls and improper use are also an issue. For
these reasons, there are frequent public information
999 is an official emergency telephone number in a campaigns in the UK on the correct use of the 999 system.
number of countries which allows the caller to contact Alternative three-digit numbers for non-emergency
emergency services for urgent assistance. calls have also been introduced in recent years. 101 is
States using 999 include the United Kingdom, Ireland, used for non-urgent calls.[5] Meanwhile, trials of 111 as a
Poland, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Macao, number to access health services in the UK for urgent but
Bahrain, Qatar, Bangladesh, Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, not life-threatening cases began in 2010.
Hong Kong, Malaysia, Mauritius, Singapore, Zimbabwe, In 2008-2009, Nottinghamshire Police ran a successful
and Trinidad and Tobago. pilot of Pegasus, a database containing the details of peo-
ple with physical and learning disabilities or mental
health problems, who have registered with the force be-
United Kingdom cause their disabilities make it difficult for them to give
999 or 112 can be used to summon assistance from the spoken details when calling the police. Those registered
three main emergency services, the police, fire brigade on the database are issued with a personal identification
and ambulance, or more specialist services such as the number (PIN) that can be used in two ways. By phone - ei-
Coastguard and, in relevant areas, mountain and cave ther 999, 112 or the force’s non-emergency 0300 300 9999
rescue. Calls to 112 or 999 are free. Calls to the European number can be used - once a person is put through to the
Union and GSM standard emergency number 112 are au- control room, they only need to say "Pegasus" and their
tomatically routed to 999 operators. PIN. Their details can then be retrieved from the data-
base and the caller can quickly explain why they have
History called. In person the Pegasus PIN can be told or shown
First introduced in the London area on 30 June 1937, the to a police officer. In January 2011, City of London Police
UK’s 999 number is the world’s oldest emergency call made Pegasus available for non-emergency calls.
service. The system is said to have been introduced fol- The introduction of push-button (landline, cordless
lowing a fire on 10 November 1935 in a house on Wim- and mobile) telephones has enabled a problem for UK
pole Street in which five women were killed.[1] A neigh- emergency services,[6] due to the ease of same-digit se-
bour had tried to telephone the fire brigade and was so quences being accidentally keyed by e.g. objects in the
outraged at being held in a queue by the Welbeck tele- same pocket as a telephone or by children playing with a
phone exchange that he wrote a letter to the editor of The telephone. This problem is less of a concern with emer-
Times,[2] which prompted a government inquiry.[1] gency numbers that use two different digits, such as 112
The 9-9-9 format was chosen based on the ’button and 911 although on landlines 112 suffers much of the
A’ and ’button B’ design of pre-payment coin-operated same risk of false generation as the 111 code which was
public payphones in wide use (first introduced in 1925) considered and ignored when the original choice of 999
which could be easily modified to allow free use of the was made.
9 digit on the rotary dial in addition to the 0 digit (then The pan-European 112 code was introduced in the UK
by BT in December 1992,[citation needed] with little publici-
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 999 (emergency telephone number)
ty. It connects to existing 999 circuits. The GSM standard
mandates that the user of a GSM phone can dial 112 with-
out unlocking the keypad, a feature that can save time in
emergencies but that also causes some accidental calls. A
valid SIM card is required to make a 999/112 emergency
call in the UK.[7][8]
It has been reported that some mobile phone hand-
sets sold in the UK and Ireland may connect calls dialled
as 9-1-1 to the GSM standard emergency number 112. It
is also possible that 9-1-1 may be mapped inappropriate-
ly to emergency services in some VoIP equipment or pri-
vate networks. However, the digits 911 could form the
start of a normal local number in Ireland or the United
Kingdom, so the code is not supported by the public tele-
phone networks. This is simply a quirk of programming.
911 is not the official number and cannot be relied upon
in case of emergency.[9]
Procedure
999 or 112 is used to contact the emergency services up-
on witnessing or being involved in an emergency. In the
United Kingdom, the numbers 999 and 112 both connect
to the same service, and there is no priority or charge for
either of them.
An emergency can be:
• A person in immediate danger of injury or whose life
is at risk
• Suspicion that a crime is in progress
• A building on fire
• Another serious incident which needs immediate
emergency service attendance
On dialling 999 or 112 an operator at BT, Cable & Wireless
or Global Crossing will answer and ask, "Emergency.
Which service?"[citation needed] Previously operators asked
"Which service do you require?" (approximately up to
the mid-90s). If the caller is unsure as to which service
they require, the operator will default the call to the po-
lice, and if an incident requires more than one service,
for instance a road traffic collision with injuries and
trapped people, depending on the service the caller has
chosen, the service will alert the other services for the
caller (while the operator has to also contact each emer-
gency service individually, regardless of whether the
caller has remained on the line). The caller will be con-
nected to the service which covers the area that they are
(or appear to be) calling from. A common emergency call
On 6 October 1998, BT introduced a new system
whereby all the information about the location of the ber, e.g. "Bangor connecting 01248 300 000". It was com-
calling telephone was transmitted electronically to the mon for the person calling to be confused as to why the
relevant service rather than having to read it out (with operator was talking to the emergency service, and the
the possibility of errors). This system is called EISEC (En- caller frequently talked over the operator. Only around
hanced Information Service for Emergency Calls). Previ- 50% of the emergency authorities have EISEC, although
ously, the operator had to start the connection to the the number is ever increasing, so, in those cases without
emergency service control room by stating the location EISEC present, the operator still has to pass their location
of the operator, followed by the caller’s telephone num- and the caller’s number.
2
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 999 (emergency telephone number)
The rooms in which operators work are called op- The most common reasons for abandoned calls in-
erator assistance centres (OACs). In Wales they are lo- clude:
cated in Newport and Bangor. 999/112 calls from mobile • Accidental dialling of 999 on mobile phones, even
telephones are usually answered in an OAC in Inverness, with the keypad locked. Some GSM mobile phones
Scotland, or Blackburn, England. Cable & Wireless Opera- have a feature of still allowing emergency calls to be
tor Services are based in Glasgow and Birmingham. C&W dialled even with the keypad locked;
primarily handle 999 calls for Virgin Media and T Mobile. • Faulty phone lines.
The rooms in which emergency response operators
work are called Emergency Control Centres (ECCs).
In some situations there may be specific instructions
Ireland
on nearby signs to notify some other authority of an In Ireland, 999 and the European and GSM standard 112
emergency before calling 999. For example, bridges car- [10] are the national emergency numbers. The 999/112
rying railways over roads may carry signs advising that service is able to respond in Irish, English, Polish, French,
if a road vehicle strikes the bridge the railway authority German and Italian.[11]
(on a given number) should be called first, then 999.
Access to the 999/112 service is provided for the
hearing-impaired via Textphone and use of the RNID
Saudi Arabia
"Typetalk" relay service. The number is 18000. In Saudi Arabia, 999 is the emergency number for the po-
lice only; 998 is for the fire brigade, 997 for ambulance,
Location 996 for traffic police, and 995 is for the General Depart-
ment of Narcotics Control.
It is important for the caller to be aware of their location
when phoning for the emergency services; the caller’s lo-
cation will not be passed onto the emergency services Bangladesh
immediately, and finding the location require a combina-
In Bangladesh, 999 is the emergency number for Dhaka
tion of efforts from both parties. However it is possible to
Metropolitan Police, while Fire Service is 199.
trace both landline and mobile telephone numbers with
the BT operator; the former can be traced to an address.
The latter can be immediately traced to a grid reference Hong Kong and Macau
according to the transmitter being used, however this is 999 was introduced to Hong Kong during British rule and
only accurate to a certain wide area — for more specif- continues to be used following the transfer of sovereign-
ic traces senior authority must be acquired and an ex- ty.
pensive operation can be conducted to trace the mobile Macau also adopted the 999 number after the transfer
phone to within a few metres. of sovereignty from Portugal to China in 1999; it also in-
On some occasions callers will be put through to the troduced two emergency hotline numbers: 110 (mainly
wrong area service - this is called a "misrouted 9". The for tourists from mainland China) and 112 (mainly for
most common reason for this is when a mobile phone tourists from overseas).
calls 999 and is using a radio transmitter that is located The worldwide emergency number for GSM mobile
in another force; most frequently these are calls that are phones, 112, also works on all GSM networks in the coun-
made within a few miles of a border. Upon establish- try. Calls made to this number are redirected to the 999
ing the incident location, the emergency service opera- call centre.
tor will relay the information to the responsible force for
their dispatch. In most areas, other forces will respond to
incidents just within the border if they could get there Malaysia
quicker, assist, and then hand over to the other force The 999 emergency services in Malaysia is staffed by
when they arrive. about 138 telephonists from Telekom Malaysia. Ongoing
upgrading works are taking place to introduce the
Abandoned and hoax calls Computer-Telephony Integration (CTI) for hospital ex-
An abandoned call is when a caller, intentionally or oth- changes, digital mapping to track the callers’ locations
erwise, rings 999 and then ends the call or stays silent, and Computer Assisted Despatching (CAD) for online
this could be for any number of reasons, including coer- connectivity among the agencies providing the emer-
cion or harm coming to the caller. Abandoned calls are gency services in the country. All calls to the number are
filtered by BT operators and are either disconnected or made free of charge.
passed to the police. All abandoned calls are checked by The worldwide emergency number for GSM mobile
the police. phones, 112, also works on all GSM networks in the coun-
3
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 999 (emergency telephone number)
try. Calls made to this number are redirected to the 999 • Emergency Control Centre
call centre. • Emergency telephone
• Emergency telephone number
Mauritius •
•
In case of emergency
999 (BBC TV series)
Mauritius uses the 999 emergency number for police con-
tact only. The other emergency numbers in use are 114
for emergency medical assistance and 115 for the fire ser-
References
vice.[12] [1] ^ The Times (2009-09-09). "999: can somebody help?
It’s an emergency". London.
Poland http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/
life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/
The 112 emergency number is an all-service number in article6826410.ece. Retrieved 2009-09-11.
Poland like in other EU states, but old numbers that were [2] The Times (1935-11-11). "The fire in Wimpole
traditionally designated for emergencies are still in use Street". London. http://archive.timesonline.co.uk/
parallel to 112. Those are 999 for ambulance, 998 for fire tol/viewArticle.arc?articleId=ARCHIVE-
brigade and 997 for police. The_Times-1935-11-11-13-013&pageId=ARCHIVE-
The_Times-1935-11-11-13. Retrieved 2009-09-11.
United Arab Emirates [3] BT plc (2007-06-29). "999 celebrates its 70th
birthday". http://www.btplc.com/News/Articles/
In the United Arab Emirates the 999 service is used to ShowArticle.cfm?ArticleID=6e55cb12-8c0c-417f-
contact the police who are also capable of forwarding the b68c-6a7f62b1d8c8. Retrieved 2008-01-12.
call as appropriate to the ambulance or fire services. The [4] BBC (2008-11-26). "When are silent 999 calls cut
number 998 connects directly to the ambulance service off?". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/
and 997 to the fire brigade. magazine/7748046.stm. Retrieved 2008-11-26.
[5] Welcome to 101, Home Office,
Singapore http://www.101.gov.uk
[6] BBC News Online (2000-03-21). "Mobiles blamed for
In Singapore, the number 999 was inherited from British emergency calls". http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/
rule and continued after independence. The number 995 684804.stm. Retrieved 2008-01-12.
was later additionally established in 1984 for direct lines [7] "The mobile phone user guide - Security".
to the fire brigade and ambulance services of the Singa- mobileshop.org. http://www.mobileshop.org/
pore Civil Defence Force. security/. Retrieved 2008-01-12.
[8] http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/
Trinidad and Tobago activities/112/ms/gb/index_en.htm
[9] Garda Síochána. "Numbers to contact the Gardaí in
In Trinidad and Tobago, 999 is used to contact the police an emergency situation". http://www.garda.ie/
only. The number 811 is used for the ambulance service faq.html#G3. Retrieved 2008-01-21.
and 990 for the fire brigade. [10] http://www.112.ie/ 112 Official Website
[11] 999/112 Operators in Ireland answer the calls in
See also under one second and say Emergency, Which Service?
after you tell the operator whether you require
• 101 - non-emergency number in the United Kingdom
Gardaí (Irish Police Service), Ambulance, Fire
• 000 - emergency number in Australia
Birgade, Coastguard or Cave and Mountain Rescue
• 111 - emergency number in New Zealand
you will then be transferred to the emergency
• 112 - emergency number across the European Union
dispatcher for the appropriate service. RTÉ News
and on GSM mobile networks across the world
(11 February 2009)
• 119 - emergency number in Jamaica and parts of Asia
[12] Mauritius Country Specific Information, U.S.
• 911 - emergency number in the United States and
Department of State, 18 January 2011.
Canada
• eCall
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 999 (emergency telephone number)
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