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999 (emergency telephone number)
Encyclopedia
999 is an official emergency telephone number
in a number of countries which allows the caller to contact emergency service
s for urgent assistance.
States using 999 include the United Kingdom
, Ireland
, Poland
, Saudi Arabia
, the United Arab Emirates
, Macao
, Bahrain
, Qatar
, Bangladesh
, Botswana
, Ghana
, Kenya
, Hong Kong
, Malaysia, Mauritius
, Singapore
, Zimbabwe
, and Trinidad and Tobago
.
and, in relevant areas, mountain
and cave rescue
. Calls to 112 or 999 are free. Calls to the European Union
and GSM standard emergency number 112 are automatically routed to 999 operators.
area on 30 June 1937, the UK's 999 number is the world's oldest emergency call service. The system is said to have been introduced following a fire
on 10 November 1935 in a house on Wimpole Street in which five women were killed. A neighbour had tried to telephone the fire brigade and was so outraged at being held in a queue by the Welbeck telephone exchange that he wrote a letter to the editor of The Times
, which prompted a government inquiry.
The 9-9-9 format was chosen based on the 'button A' and 'button B' design of pre-payment coin-operated public payphone
s in wide use (first introduced in 1925) which could be easily modified to allow free use of the 9 digit on the rotary dial
in addition to the 0 digit (then 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 impaired to easily dial the emergency number. It is also the case that it is relatively easy for 111, and other low-number sequences, to be dialled accidentally, including when transmission wires making momentary contact produce a pulse similar to dialling (e.g. when overhead cables touch in high winds).
Hoax calls and improper use are also an issue. For these reasons, there are frequent public information campaigns in the UK on the correct use of the 999 system.
Alternative three-digit numbers for non-emergency calls have also been introduced in recent years. 101
is used for non-urgent calls. Meanwhile, trials of 111 as a number to access health services in the UK for urgent but not life-threatening cases began in 2010.
In 2008-2009, Nottinghamshire Police
ran a successful pilot of Pegasus, a database containing the details of people with physical and learning disabilities or mental health problems, who have registered with the force because their disabilities make it difficult for them to give spoken details when calling the police. Those registered on the database are issued with a personal identification number (PIN) that can be used in two ways. By phone - either 999, 112 or the force's non-emergency 0300 300 9999 number can be used - once a person is put through to the control room, they only need to say "Pegasus" and their PIN. Their details can then be retrieved from the database and the caller can quickly explain why they have called. In person the Pegasus PIN can be told or shown to a police officer. In January 2011, City of London Police made Pegasus available for non-emergency calls.
The introduction of push-button (landline, cordless and mobile) telephones has enabled a problem for UK emergency services, due to the ease of same-digit sequences being accidentally keyed by e.g. objects in the same pocket as a telephone or by children playing with a telephone. This problem is less of a concern with emergency numbers that use two different digits, such as 112 and 911 although on landlines 112 suffers much of the same risk of false generation as the 111 code which was considered and ignored when the original choice of 999 was made.
The pan-European 112 code was introduced in the UK by BT in December 1992, with little publicity. It connects to existing 999 circuits. The GSM standard mandates that the user of a GSM phone can dial 112 without 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.
It has been reported that some mobile phone handsets 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 inappropriately to emergency services in some VoIP equipment or private 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 telephone networks. This is simply a quirk of programming. 911 is not the official number and cannot be relied upon in case of emergency.
999 or 112 is used to contact the emergency services upon 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:
On dialling 999 or 112 an operator at BT
, Cable & Wireless or Global Crossing
will answer and ask, "Emergency. Which service?" 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 police, 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 emergency service individually, regardless of whether the caller has remained on the line). The caller will be connected to the service which covers the area that they are (or appear to be) calling from.
On 6 October 1998, BT
introduced a new system whereby all the information about the location of the calling telephone was transmitted electronically to the relevant service rather than having to read it out (with the possibility of errors). This system is called EISEC (Enhanced Information Service for Emergency Calls). Previously, the operator had to start the connection to the emergency service control room by stating the location of the operator, followed by the caller's telephone number, e.g. "Bangor connecting 01248 300 000". It was common for the person calling to be confused as to why the operator was talking to the emergency service, and the caller frequently talked over the operator. Only around 50% of the emergency authorities have EISEC, although the number is ever increasing, so, in those cases without EISEC present, the operator still has to pass their location and the caller's number.
The rooms in which operators work are called operator assistance centres (OACs). In Wales they are located in Newport
and Bangor
. 999/112 calls from mobile telephones are usually answered in an OAC in Inverness
, Scotland
, or Blackburn, England
. Cable & Wireless Operator Services are based in Glasgow and Birmingham. C&W primarily handle 999 calls for Virgin Media and T Mobile.
The rooms in which emergency response operators work are called Emergency Control Centre
s (ECCs).
In some situations there may be specific instructions on nearby signs to notify some other authority of an emergency before calling 999. For example, bridges carrying railways over roads may carry signs advising that if a road vehicle strikes the bridge the railway authority (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
"Typetalk" relay service. The number is 18000.
according to the transmitter
being used, however this is only accurate to a certain wide area — for more specific traces senior authority must be acquired and an expensive operation can be conducted to trace the mobile phone to within a few metres.
On some occasions callers will be put through to the wrong area service - this is called a "misrouted 9". The most common reason for this is when a mobile phone calls 999 and is using a radio transmitter that is located in another force; most frequently these are calls that are made within a few miles of a border. Upon establishing the incident location, the emergency service operator 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 quicker, assist, and then hand over to the other force when they arrive.
The most common reasons for abandoned calls include:
, 999 and the European and GSM standard 112 are the national emergency numbers. The 999/112 service is able to respond in Irish
, English, Polish, French, German and Italian.
, 999 is the emergency number for the police only; 998 is for the fire brigade, 997 for ambulance, 996 for traffic police, and 995 is for the General Department of Narcotics Control.
, 999 is the emergency number for Dhaka Metropolitan Police
, while Fire Service is 199.
during British rule and continues to be used following the transfer of sovereignty.
Macau
also adopted the 999 number after the transfer of sovereignty from Portugal to China in 1999; it also introduced two emergency hotline numbers: 110 (mainly for tourists from mainland China) and 112 (mainly for tourists from overseas).
The worldwide emergency number for GSM mobile phones, 112, also works on all GSM networks in the country. Calls made to this number are redirected to the 999 call centre.
. Ongoing upgrading works are taking place to introduce the Computer-Telephony Integration (CTI) for hospital exchanges, digital mapping to track the callers' locations and Computer Assisted Despatching (CAD) for online connectivity among the agencies providing the emergency services in the country. All calls to the number are made free of charge.
The worldwide emergency number for GSM mobile phones, 112, also works on all GSM networks in the country. Calls made to this number are redirected to the 999 call centre.
uses the 999 emergency number for police contact only. The other emergency numbers in use are 114 for emergency medical assistance and 115 for the fire service.
like in other EU states, but old numbers that were traditionally designated for emergencies are still in use parallel to 112. Those are 999 for ambulance, 998 for fire brigade and 997 for police.
the 999 service is used to contact the police who are also capable of forwarding the call as appropriate to the ambulance or fire services. The number 998 connects directly to the ambulance service and 997 to the fire brigade.
, the number 999 was inherited from British rule and continued after independence. The number 995 was later additionally established in 1984 for direct lines to the fire brigade and ambulance services of the Singapore Civil Defence Force
.
, 999 is used to contact the police only. The number 811 is used for the ambulance service and 990 for the fire brigade.
Emergency telephone number
Many countries' public telephone networks have a single emergency telephone number, sometimes known as the universal emergency telephone number or occasionally the emergency services number, that allows a caller to contact local emergency services for assistance. The emergency telephone number may...
in a number of countries which allows the caller to contact emergency service
Emergency service
Emergency services are organizations which ensure public safety and health by addressing different emergencies. Some agencies exist solely for addressing certain types of emergencies whilst others deal with ad hoc emergencies as part of their normal responsibilities...
s for urgent assistance.
States using 999 include the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
, the United Arab Emirates
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates, abbreviated as the UAE, or shortened to "the Emirates", is a state situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and sharing sea borders with Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Iran.The UAE is a...
, Macao
Mação
Mação is a municipality in Portugal with a total area of 400.0 km² and a total population of 7,763 inhabitants.The municipality is composed of eight parishes, and is located in the Santarém District....
, Bahrain
Bahrain
' , officially the Kingdom of Bahrain , is a small island state near the western shores of the Persian Gulf. It is ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family. The population in 2010 stood at 1,214,705, including 235,108 non-nationals. Formerly an emirate, Bahrain was declared a kingdom in 2002.Bahrain is...
, Qatar
Qatar
Qatar , also known as the State of Qatar or locally Dawlat Qaṭar, is a sovereign Arab state, located in the Middle East, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the much larger Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its...
, Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
, Botswana
Botswana
Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana , is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa. The citizens are referred to as "Batswana" . Formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana adopted its new name after becoming independent within the Commonwealth on 30 September 1966...
, Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
, Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
, Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
, Malaysia, Mauritius
Mauritius
Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...
, Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
, and Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles...
.
United Kingdom
999 or 112 can be used to summon assistance from the three main emergency services, the police, fire brigade and ambulance, or more specialist services such as the CoastguardHer Majesty's Coastguard
Her Majesty's Coastguard is the service of the government of the United Kingdom concerned with co-ordinating air-sea rescue.HM Coastguard is a section of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency responsible for the initiation and co-ordination of all civilian maritime Search and Rescue within the UK...
and, in relevant areas, mountain
Mountain rescue
Mountain rescue refers to search and rescue activities that occur in a mountainous environment, although the term is sometimes also used to apply to search and rescue in other wilderness environments. The difficult and remote nature of the terrain in which mountain rescue often occurs has resulted...
and cave rescue
Cave rescue
Cave rescue is a highly specialized field of wilderness rescue in which injured, trapped or lost cave explorers are medically treated and extracted from various cave environments....
. Calls to 112 or 999 are free. Calls to the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
and GSM standard emergency number 112 are automatically routed to 999 operators.
History
First introduced in the LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
area on 30 June 1937, the UK's 999 number is the world's oldest emergency call service. The system is said to have been introduced following a fire
Fire
Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material in the chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. Slower oxidative processes like rusting or digestion are not included by this definition....
on 10 November 1935 in a house on Wimpole Street in which five women were killed. A neighbour had tried to telephone the fire brigade and was so outraged at being held in a queue by the Welbeck telephone exchange that he wrote a letter to the editor of The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, which prompted a government inquiry.
The 9-9-9 format was chosen based on the 'button A' and 'button B' design of pre-payment coin-operated public payphone
Payphone
A payphone or pay phone is a public telephone, often located in a phone booth or a privacy hood, with pre-payment by inserting money , a credit or debit card, or a telephone card....
s in wide use (first introduced in 1925) which could be easily modified to allow free use of the 9 digit on the rotary dial
Rotary dial
The rotary dial is a device mounted on or in a telephone or switchboard that is designed to send electrical pulses, known as pulse dialing, corresponding to the number dialed. The early form of the rotary dial used lugs on a finger plate instead of holes. Almon Brown Strowger filed the first patent...
in addition to the 0 digit (then 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 impaired to easily dial the emergency number. It is also the case that it is relatively easy for 111, and other low-number sequences, to be dialled accidentally, including when transmission wires making momentary contact produce a pulse similar to dialling (e.g. when overhead cables touch in high winds).
Hoax calls and improper use are also an issue. For these reasons, there are frequent public information campaigns in the UK on the correct use of the 999 system.
Alternative three-digit numbers for non-emergency calls have also been introduced in recent years. 101
Single Non-Emergency Number
In law enforcement and telecommunications, Single Non-Emergency Number or SNEN is a phone service run by police forces and local councils in England and Wales and is used for the public to contact police forces in the UK...
is used for non-urgent calls. Meanwhile, trials of 111 as a number to access health services in the UK for urgent but not life-threatening cases began in 2010.
In 2008-2009, Nottinghamshire Police
Nottinghamshire Police
Nottinghamshire Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the shire county of Nottinghamshire and the unitary authority of Nottingham in the East Midlands of England. The area has a population of just over 1 million....
ran a successful pilot of Pegasus, a database containing the details of people with physical and learning disabilities or mental health problems, who have registered with the force because their disabilities make it difficult for them to give spoken details when calling the police. Those registered on the database are issued with a personal identification number (PIN) that can be used in two ways. By phone - either 999, 112 or the force's non-emergency 0300 300 9999 number can be used - once a person is put through to the control room, they only need to say "Pegasus" and their PIN. Their details can then be retrieved from the database and the caller can quickly explain why they have called. In person the Pegasus PIN can be told or shown to a police officer. In January 2011, City of London Police made Pegasus available for non-emergency calls.
The introduction of push-button (landline, cordless and mobile) telephones has enabled a problem for UK emergency services, due to the ease of same-digit sequences being accidentally keyed by e.g. objects in the same pocket as a telephone or by children playing with a telephone. This problem is less of a concern with emergency numbers that use two different digits, such as 112 and 911 although on landlines 112 suffers much of the same risk of false generation as the 111 code which was considered and ignored when the original choice of 999 was made.
The pan-European 112 code was introduced in the UK by BT in December 1992, with little publicity. It connects to existing 999 circuits. The GSM standard mandates that the user of a GSM phone can dial 112 without unlocking the keypad, a feature that can save time in emergencies but that also causes some accidental calls. A valid SIM card
Subscriber Identity Module
A subscriber identity module or subscriber identification module is an integrated circuit that securely stores the International Mobile Subscriber Identity and the related key used to identify and authenticate subscriber on mobile telephony devices .A SIM is held on a removable SIM card, which...
is required to make a 999/112 emergency call in the UK.
It has been reported that some mobile phone handsets sold in the UK and Ireland may connect calls dialled as 9-1-1
9-1-1
9-1-1 is the emergency telephone number for the North American Numbering Plan .It is one of eight N11 codes.The use of this number is for emergency circumstances only, and to use it for any other purpose can be a crime.-History:In the earliest days of telephone technology, prior to the...
to the GSM standard emergency number 112. It is also possible that 9-1-1
9-1-1
9-1-1 is the emergency telephone number for the North American Numbering Plan .It is one of eight N11 codes.The use of this number is for emergency circumstances only, and to use it for any other purpose can be a crime.-History:In the earliest days of telephone technology, prior to the...
may be mapped inappropriately to emergency services in some VoIP equipment or private 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 telephone networks. This is simply a quirk of programming. 911 is not the official number and cannot be relied upon in case of emergency.
Procedure
Emergency
An emergency is a situation that poses an immediate risk to health, life, property or environment. Most emergencies require urgent intervention to prevent a worsening of the situation, although in some situations, mitigation may not be possible and agencies may only be able to offer palliative...
. 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 injuryTrauma (medicine)Trauma refers to "a body wound or shock produced by sudden physical injury, as from violence or accident." It can also be described as "a physical wound or injury, such as a fracture or blow." Major trauma can result in secondary complications such as circulatory shock, respiratory failure and death...
or whose life is at risk - Suspicion that a crimeCrimeCrime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction...
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
BT Group
BT Group plc is a global telecommunications services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is one of the largest telecommunications services companies in the world and has operations in more than 170 countries. Through its BT Global Services division it is a major supplier of...
, Cable & Wireless or Global Crossing
Global Crossing
Global Crossing Limited was a telecommunications company that provides computer networking services worldwide. It maintained a large backbone and offered transit and peering links, VPN, leased lines, audio and video conferencing, long distance telephone, managed services, dialup, colocation and...
will answer and ask, "Emergency. Which service?" 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 police, 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 emergency service individually, regardless of whether the caller has remained on the line). The caller will be connected to the service which covers the area that they are (or appear to be) calling from.
On 6 October 1998, BT
BT Group
BT Group plc is a global telecommunications services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is one of the largest telecommunications services companies in the world and has operations in more than 170 countries. Through its BT Global Services division it is a major supplier of...
introduced a new system whereby all the information about the location of the calling telephone was transmitted electronically to the relevant service rather than having to read it out (with the possibility of errors). This system is called EISEC (Enhanced Information Service for Emergency Calls). Previously, the operator had to start the connection to the emergency service control room by stating the location of the operator, followed by the caller's telephone number, e.g. "Bangor connecting 01248 300 000". It was common for the person calling to be confused as to why the operator was talking to the emergency service, and the caller frequently talked over the operator. Only around 50% of the emergency authorities have EISEC, although the number is ever increasing, so, in those cases without EISEC present, the operator still has to pass their location and the caller's number.
The rooms in which operators work are called operator assistance centres (OACs). In Wales they are located in Newport
Newport
Newport is a city and unitary authority area in Wales. Standing on the banks of the River Usk, it is located about east of Cardiff and is the largest urban area within the historic county boundaries of Monmouthshire and the preserved county of Gwent...
and Bangor
Bangor, Gwynedd
Bangor is a city in Gwynedd, north west Wales, and one of the smallest cities in Britain. It is a university city with a population of 13,725 at the 2001 census, not including around 10,000 students at Bangor University. Including nearby Menai Bridge on Anglesey, which does not however form part of...
. 999/112 calls from mobile telephones are usually answered in an OAC in Inverness
Inverness
Inverness is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for the Highland council area, and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands of Scotland...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, or Blackburn, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Cable & Wireless Operator Services are based in Glasgow and Birmingham. C&W primarily handle 999 calls for Virgin Media and T Mobile.
The rooms in which emergency response operators work are called Emergency Control Centre
Emergency Control Centre
An Emergency Control Centre or Emergency Communications Centre more commonly abbreviated to ECC is a concept used by emergency services in the UK describing a building or room where control room operators take calls from members of the public in need of assistance through the 999 emergency number...
s (ECCs).
In some situations there may be specific instructions on nearby signs to notify some other authority of an emergency before calling 999. For example, bridges carrying railways over roads may carry signs advising that if a road vehicle strikes the bridge the railway authority (on a given number) should be called first, then 999.
Access to the 999/112 service is provided for the hearing-impaired via Textphone
Telecommunications device for the deaf
A telecommunications device for the deaf is a teleprinter, an electronic device for text communication over a telephone line, that is designed for use by persons with hearing or speech difficulties...
and use of the RNID
Royal National Institute for Deaf People
Action on Hearing Loss, formerly known as The Royal National Institute for Deaf People is a charitable organization working on behalf of the UK's 9 million deaf and hard of hearing people. The head office of RNID is in Islington, Central London . Its President is Lord Ashley of Stoke. The Chief...
"Typetalk" relay service. The number is 18000.
Location
It is important for the caller to be aware of their location when phoning for the emergency services; the caller's location will not be passed onto the emergency services immediately, and finding the location require a combination of efforts from both parties. However it is possible to 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 referenceGrid reference
Grid references define locations on maps using Cartesian coordinates. Grid lines on maps define the coordinate system, and are numbered to provide a unique reference to features....
according to the transmitter
Transmitter
In electronics and telecommunications a transmitter or radio transmitter is an electronic device which, with the aid of an antenna, produces radio waves. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to the antenna. When excited by this alternating...
being used, however this is only accurate to a certain wide area — for more specific traces senior authority must be acquired and an expensive operation can be conducted to trace the mobile phone to within a few metres.
On some occasions callers will be put through to the wrong area service - this is called a "misrouted 9". The most common reason for this is when a mobile phone calls 999 and is using a radio transmitter that is located in another force; most frequently these are calls that are made within a few miles of a border. Upon establishing the incident location, the emergency service operator 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 quicker, assist, and then hand over to the other force when they arrive.
Abandoned and hoax calls
An abandoned call is when a caller, intentionally or otherwise, rings 999 and then ends the call or stays silent, this could be for any number of reasons, including coercion or harm coming to the caller. Abandoned calls are filtered by BT operators and are either disconnected or passed to the police. All abandoned calls are checked by the police.The most common reasons for abandoned calls include:
- Accidental dialling of 999 on mobile phones, even with the keypad locked. Some GSM mobile phones have a feature of still allowing emergency calls to be dialled even with the keypad locked;
- Faulty phone lines.
Ireland
In IrelandIreland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, 999 and the European and GSM standard 112 are the national emergency numbers. The 999/112 service is able to respond in Irish
Irish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
, English, Polish, French, German and Italian.
Saudi Arabia
In Saudi ArabiaSaudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
, 999 is the emergency number for the police only; 998 is for the fire brigade, 997 for ambulance, 996 for traffic police, and 995 is for the General Department of Narcotics Control.
Bangladesh
In BangladeshBangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
, 999 is the emergency number for Dhaka Metropolitan Police
Dhaka Metropolitan Police
The Dhaka Metropolitan Police is the division of Bangladesh Police responsible for law enforcement in the metropolis of Dhaka, the national capital and most populous city in Bangladesh. The DMP is the largest police force in Bangladesh...
, while Fire Service is 199.
Hong Kong and Macau
999 was introduced to Hong KongHong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
during British rule and continues to be used following the transfer of sovereignty.
Macau
Macau
Macau , also spelled Macao , is, along with Hong Kong, one of the two special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China...
also adopted the 999 number after the transfer of sovereignty from Portugal to China in 1999; it also introduced two emergency hotline numbers: 110 (mainly for tourists from mainland China) and 112 (mainly for tourists from overseas).
The worldwide emergency number for GSM mobile phones, 112, also works on all GSM networks in the country. Calls made to this number are redirected to the 999 call centre.
Malaysia
The 999 emergency services in Malaysia is staffed by about 138 telephonists from Telekom MalaysiaTelekom Malaysia
Telekom Malaysia Berhad , DBA TM, is the largest integrated solutions provider in Malaysia, and one of Asia's leading communications companies, with a market capitalisation of RM13.9 billion and a workforce of 26,629 employees. Established as the Telecommunications Department of Malaya in 1946, it...
. Ongoing upgrading works are taking place to introduce the Computer-Telephony Integration (CTI) for hospital exchanges, digital mapping to track the callers' locations and Computer Assisted Despatching (CAD) for online connectivity among the agencies providing the emergency services in the country. All calls to the number are made free of charge.
The worldwide emergency number for GSM mobile phones, 112, also works on all GSM networks in the country. Calls made to this number are redirected to the 999 call centre.
Mauritius
MauritiusMauritius
Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...
uses the 999 emergency number for police contact only. The other emergency numbers in use are 114 for emergency medical assistance and 115 for the fire service.
Poland
The 112 emergency number is an all-service number in PolandPoland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
like in other EU states, but old numbers that were traditionally designated for emergencies are still in use parallel to 112. Those are 999 for ambulance, 998 for fire brigade and 997 for police.
United Arab Emirates
In the United Arab EmiratesUnited Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates, abbreviated as the UAE, or shortened to "the Emirates", is a state situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and sharing sea borders with Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Iran.The UAE is a...
the 999 service is used to contact the police who are also capable of forwarding the call as appropriate to the ambulance or fire services. The number 998 connects directly to the ambulance service and 997 to the fire brigade.
Singapore
In SingaporeSingapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, the number 999 was inherited from British rule and continued after independence. The number 995 was later additionally established in 1984 for direct lines to the fire brigade and ambulance services of the Singapore Civil Defence Force
Singapore Civil Defence Force
The Singapore Civil Defence Force is the main agency in charge of the provision of emergency services in Singapore during peacetime and emergency.A uniformed organisation under the purview of the Ministry of Home Affairs, the main role of SCDF is to provide...
.
Trinidad and Tobago
In Trinidad and TobagoTrinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles...
, 999 is used to contact the police only. The number 811 is used for the ambulance service and 990 for the fire brigade.
See also
- 101Single Non-Emergency NumberIn law enforcement and telecommunications, Single Non-Emergency Number or SNEN is a phone service run by police forces and local councils in England and Wales and is used for the public to contact police forces in the UK...
- non-emergency number in the United Kingdom - 000000 emergencyTriple Zero is the primary national emergency number in Australia. The Emergency Call Service is operated by Telstra a condition of its telecommunications licence, and is intended only for use in life-threatening or time-critical emergencies...
- emergency number in AustraliaAustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area... - 111 - emergency number in New ZealandNew ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
- 112 - emergency number across the European Union and on GSM mobile networks across the world
- 119 - emergency number in JamaicaJamaicaJamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
and parts of AsiaAsiaAsia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population... - 9119-1-19-1-1 is the emergency telephone number for the North American Numbering Plan .It is one of eight N11 codes.The use of this number is for emergency circumstances only, and to use it for any other purpose can be a crime.-History:In the earliest days of telephone technology, prior to the...
- emergency number in the United StatesUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and CanadaCanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean... - eCall
- Emergency Control CentreEmergency Control CentreAn Emergency Control Centre or Emergency Communications Centre more commonly abbreviated to ECC is a concept used by emergency services in the UK describing a building or room where control room operators take calls from members of the public in need of assistance through the 999 emergency number...
- Emergency telephoneEmergency telephoneAn emergency telephone is a phone specifically provided for making calls to emergency services and is most often found in a place of special danger or where it is likely that there will only be a need to make emergency calls....
- Emergency telephone numberEmergency telephone numberMany countries' public telephone networks have a single emergency telephone number, sometimes known as the universal emergency telephone number or occasionally the emergency services number, that allows a caller to contact local emergency services for assistance. The emergency telephone number may...
- In case of emergencyIn case of emergencyIn case of emergency is a programme that enables first responders, such as paramedics, firefighters, police officers, and Hospital personnel, to contact the phone owner's next of kin to obtain important medical/support information...
- 999 (BBC TV series)999 (BBC TV series)999 is a British docudrama television series presented by Michael Buerk, that premiered in 1992 on BBC One and ran until 2003. The series got its name from the emergency telephone number used in the United Kingdom....