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The article links to [1] which says > Nearly half of the 80,000 calls received daily by BT operators in the UK do not involve requests for help. I would neve
by chrisandchris 2y ago
The article links to [1] which says
> Nearly half of the 80,000 calls received daily by BT operators in the UK do not involve requests for help.
I would never have estimated such a high quote of unnecessary emergency calls.
And that‘s a fun fact
> Experts chose 999 rather than 111 for technical reasons. In pre-optical fibre days telegraph wires rubbed together in the wind and transmitted the equivalent of a 111 call
[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20090302014433/http://www.btplc.com/News/Articles/ShowArticle.cfm?ArticleID=6e55cb12-8c0c-417f-b68c-6a7f62b1d8c8 https://web.archive.org/web/20090302014433/http://www.btplc....
- tangentstar 2y agoThe “dial” on a rotary phone broke the connection in rapid sequence a number of times corresponding to the number dialed. If your dial broke, you could place calls by “flashing” the “hook” the right number of times with pauses between.
- edgineer 2y agoYou could do the same with a touch tone phone, too.
- tangentstar 2y agoHeck, you could do it with a pair of alligator clips at a punch down panel. The telco was fun before everything went digital.