Metropol

Nick Harvey wrote:Once 999 is discontinued and 112 takes over completely, the whole "9" "level" will then be open for customers' numbers, thus freeing lots more numbers into the system.

Don't numbers in, for example, Bristol and Reading already start with a 9? Or am I misunderstanding the information provided above by your good self?

So 999 won't work? That sounds really quite dangerous- there are many poor old folks who, despite the advertising, just won't understand that it's changed and willl dial 999 in an emergency and not get through. A survey I saw a while ago showed that 10% or so of people still thought 192 was the number for directory enquiries -- and we all know how hard the 118 drive was marketed!

Dan wrote:

Nick Harvey wrote:Once 999 is discontinued and 112 takes over completely, the whole "9" "level" will then be open for customers' numbers, thus freeing lots more numbers into the system.

Don't numbers in, for example, Bristol and Reading already start with a 9? Or am I misunderstanding the information provided above by your good self?

The greater Belfast area also has numbers beginning with 9.

My dad used to work for the RNLI... when he was contacting people in Aranmore in the Republic of Ireland the number for the lifeboat station there was 8. Just 8. Mind you the code for Aranmore was about 10 digits...

Nick Harvey wrote:

Sput wrote:I'm confused, Nick. Why did you need to use the phone when you could have called down through the clouds?

Ah, that was the swinging sixties (though I didn't inhale (much)(don't ask either)), before I'd been pontificated!

So how did that work? Did you get voted in? Are you telling us that heaven operates a system of proportional representation?

Tut tut - I thought you weren't allowed to use your mobile whilst you were driving?!?!?!?!

mwp wrote:Tut tut - I thought you weren't allowed to use your mobile whilst you were driving?!?!?!?!

as with everything (well, except tv forum moderation) the police use their discretion in cases like this. you are allowed to use hand held mobiles whilst driving in emergency situations, my brother had reason to do so a while ago and the police were completely fine about it.

Dan wrote:

Nick Harvey wrote:Once 999 is discontinued and 112 takes over completely, the whole "9" "level" will then be open for customers' numbers, thus freeing lots more numbers into the system.

Don't numbers in, for example, Bristol and Reading already start with a 9? Or am I misunderstanding the information provided above by your good self?

Numbers starting with a 9 only came in after the old "toll" codes had long been discontinued and (largely) been forgortton by the users.

The 9X toll codes were a product of the fifties, sixties and early seventies; were being discontinued in the eighties; and were gone by the nineties.

The old 92 code from Bristol to Trowbridge, for instance, had long gone by the time Bristol went from 0272 to 0117 on "PhONEday", April 16th 1995, and the 9 level started to be used for subscribers' numbers.

There are still only a handful of locations (all with codes starting either 02 or 011) where subs' numbers start with a 9.

The remainder of the 9 level in those few locations; and the whole of the 9 level in all other locations won't be opened up for subs' numbers till 999 has gone.

Understood. I remember that we had a book of local dialling codes in the early 1980s; was Bristol to Bath also 92?

So 999 won't work? That sounds really quite dangerous- there are many poor old folks who, despite the advertising, just won't understand that it's changed and willl dial 999 in an emergency and not get through. A survey I saw a while ago showed that 10% or so of people still thought 192 was the number for directory enquiries -- and we all know how hard the 118 drive was marketed!

Indeed, this is not like getting rid of 192 or turning off analogue TV, or within the context of other pointless EU 'harmonisation' policies (like replacing the V5 logbook with the V5/C registration certificate a few years ago) this is about replacing an extremely long standing and universally known number for a life or death situation emergency line with a number.

Having both 999 and 112 is useful - if I were in France I wouldn't have a clue what the local emergency number would be and would dial 112. But that doesn't mean the French shouldn't continue to have their own emergency services number with which they are familiar. Even if things are rationalised (and surely they allready are) so that 999 and 112 connect to exactly the same service, 999 should be retained.

Getting rid of it in the interests of EU 'harmonisation' and to free up some extra phone numbers is unacceptable - when it does happen how long do you think it will be until the news leads with a story of someone who died because they didn't know about 112 and dialled 999 only to get a 'does not exist' tone (or even worse, a recorded message informing them that this *was* the number for emergency service but isn't now, whilst their llife is in mortal danger around them)? Sadly, probably not very long.

What will probably inevitably happen though, is that the UK will be one of the only member states to be fully compliant with this ridiculous legislation and actually discontinue 999, most other states will probably ignore the EU's requirement to totally remove the local number and continue to redirect to 112, even if it's not publicised.

Ah well, it's all another reason why I have no intention whatosever of living out the greater part of my adult life in this country, which is a tremendous shame, since I genuinely wish I could be as proud of it as my parents and grandparents once were.

I accidentally called the emergency services once when using one of those stupid phones with an "SOS" button. When you accidentiallly call 999, however, are you actually wasting valuable emergency services time? - because you have to request a service and then get transferred to that department. I mean, who asks you which service you require?

cdd wrote:I accidentally called the emergency services once when using one of those stupid phones with an "SOS" button. When you accidentiallly call 999, however, are you actually wasting valuable emergency services time? - because you have to request a service and then get transferred to that department. I mean, who asks you which service you require?

How did you do it accidentally? Were you trying to call the Secretary of State at the time?