112 Day!

If there is one thing that the communications industry is really poor at, it is communicating. Consequently Inum went virtually un-noticed. Add government interference and one has to draw comparisons with black cats in coal holes on moonless nights.

So to light a candle in the dark and increase publicity for the event by 100% I would advert you to the announcement that today was decreed 112 Day by the European Commission.

If you have no idea what this means in VoIP terms, you can join me along with 80% of the rest of Europe who don't know what it means either!

It is the Europe wide telephone number for contacting the emergency services and has been for 16 years.

Ignoring the fact that it doesn't actually work in half of Europe and is considered unreliable everywhere else, one is given to wondering who actually decides on the number?
The selection of 999 had good practical reasons on rotary dial handsets. It is also used by at least four Euro country members and a number of other countries world wide so is almost a standard.
911 might also be considered a universal number, it appears in so many films.
555 is easy to find on a keypad in the dark because there is a pip in the middle.
But 112?

Quote:

The European Commission has declared 11 February is 112 day dedicated to raising awareness of the EU-wide emergency services number. Dial 112 in any member state, including the UK, and you’ll get through to their national equivalent of 999. The problem is, hardly anybody knows about it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/youandyours ... _wed.shtml
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6336099.stm

Reply from dibsmft on Feb 11, 2009 - 08:05 PM

I also heard the "You and Yours" item and thought that it was rather misleading. It gave the impression that 112 was in widespread use. 999 and 911 are probably the common ones, 999 is used in China and 911 in in N. America.
However, even in Canada and the US there are still many places that don't have 911 (eg. In Newfoundland I think only the Avalon Peninsula has 911). There was, you say, a good reason for 999 (each call box had instructions on how to dial it in the dark) for the old rotary dials. On a tone dialer 999 and 112 are not all that good because they are more easy to dial accidentally (by a child, cat or dog) as the digits are very close together. Perhaps 911 is better in that respect and 123 (used in a number of places) is possibly one on the worst.
I think some sort of international agreement is needed so that the same number will work anywhere..... what are the chances?

Reply from martyndavies on Feb 12, 2009 - 06:46 PM

112 does at least work widely on mobile networks. Actually my last phone you could dial the digits '1' '2' and '9' even with the key-lock engaged, which surely means that a phone jiggling around in your pocket will eventually make an emergency call...

Reply from Nik on Feb 15, 2009 - 02:09 AM

In Russian mobile networks 112 and 911 work together, no difference between dialing these numbers. Landlines do not support this feature, for fire need to dial 01, police 02, med 03 etc.. It's come from SU, and do not change for long time..

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