3 ms·
My understanding of 999 was in order to stop accidental signalling of the intent to dial the emergency number by way of noise on the line being intepreted as di
by richrichardsson 3y ago
My understanding of 999 was in order to stop accidental signalling of the intent to dial the emergency number by way of noise on the line being intepreted as dial click, which this article on BBC news seems to corroborate [1].
Having said that, that doesn't really then line up with 112 for mainland European countries, unless that is a relatively modern occurrence and they historically had different emergency numbers?
[1] http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/london/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8675000/8675199.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/london/hi/people_and_places/hist...
- iso1631 3y ago112 didn't really start getting widespread support until after pulse dialing had mostly faded away.
- gpvos 3y agoIndeed, 999 is rather old, and many other European countries had different short codes such as 15, 17 or 110 and often they were different for police, ambulance and fire fighters, and some countries had no central emergency number at all. The coordination on 112 as a common Europe-wide number (including the UK) happened somewhere in the 1990s. Pulse dialing was on its way out by then, although it is the reason why it ends in a 2 and not a 1.
- richrichardsson 3y agoHere in Croatia they still have different numbers available for the different services, alongside the 112 "catch all". 112 – general emergency line 192 – police 193 – firefighters 194 – emergency medical assistance 195 – search and rescue at sea There is also this: 1987 – road assistance