3 ms·
Because if someone is obviously trying to contact the emergency services it's probably a good idea to connect them to the emergency services.
by dagw 1y ago
Because if someone is obviously trying to contact the emergency services it's probably a good idea to connect them to the emergency services.
- eqvinox 1y agoYou're answering the wrong question. Why would 911 be "obviously trying to contact emergency services"?
- Hamuko 1y agoBecause it's a number used for emergency services in many parts of the world, and not for ordering pizza, plane strikes or whatever.
- eqvinox 1y agoRelatively speaking, it actually isn't that popular - check the map on https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emergency_telephone_numbers https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emergency_telephone_... That's what, 10% of world population? 112 has India going for it…
- justinrubek 1y ago10% sounds incredibly significant. That's nearly a billion people.
- eqvinox 1y agoSure. And in a spherical cow world, assuming you want to make n emergency numbers work, you'd sort by population-using and take the first n. …but even then 911 would only be an emergency phone number if n ≥ 3; first two places being taken by 112 and 110 (because China). However, this completely ignores facts like people from China being far less likely to travel to e.g. the US… it's more of a "of the people who'd make emergency calls in XYZ, what numbers would they use" consideration… …it's really not an easy question. GSM went with 112 and 911 and I guess that's as good as an answer this'll get.
- ctxc 1y agoPrevailing culture. A kid these days in most urban parts would tend to say "911 I have an emergency" while roleplaying because we hear it so much in popular culture.
- gsinclair 1y agoBecause US culture is exported around the world.
- soneil 1y agoWhat else would someone who dials 911 be trying to achieve? And does the benefit outweigh the cost? 911 has enough mindshare that it'd be silly to use it for anything else. And if you're not going to use it for anything, a redirect seems like a very productive way to park it.