Īlternative three-digit numbers for non-emergency calls have also been introduced in recent years. For these reasons, there are frequent public information campaigns in the UK on the correct use of the 999 system. Hoax calls and improper use are a problem. when overhead cables touch in high winds). It is also the case that it is relatively easy for 111, and other low-number sequences, to be called accidentally, including when transmission wires making momentary contact produce a pulse similar to dialling (e.g. This enables all users including the visually impaired to easily dial the emergency number.
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The choice of 999 was fortunate for accessibility, because in the dark or in dense smoke 999 could be dialled by placing a finger one hole away from the dial stop (see the articles on rotary dial and GPO telephones) and rotating the dial to the full extent three times.
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The 9-9-9 format was chosen based on the 'button A' and 'button B' design of pre-payment coin-operated public payphones in wide use (first introduced in 1925) which could be easily modified to allow free use of the 9 digit on the rotary dial in addition to the 0 digit (then used to call the operator), without allowing free use of numbers involving other digits other combinations of free call 9 and 0 were later used for more purposes, including multiples of 9 (to access exchanges before Subscriber trunk dialling came into use) as a fail-safe for attempted emergency calls, e.g. The initial scheme covered a 12-mile (19 km) radius around Oxford Circus and the public were advised only to use it in ongoing emergency if "for instance, the man in the flat next to yours is murdering his wife or you have seen a heavily masked cat burglar peering round the stack pipe of the local bank building." The first arrest – for burglary – took place a week later and the scheme was extended to major cities after World War II and then to the whole of the UK in 1976. A neighbour had tried to telephone the fire brigade and was so outraged at being held in a queue by the Welbeck telephone exchange that he wrote a letter to the editor of The Times, which prompted a government inquiry. The system was introduced following a house fire in Wimpole Street on 10 November 1935, in which five women were killed. Bomb disposal (provided by HM Armed Forces)įirst introduced in the London area on 30 June 1937, the UK's 999 number is the world's oldest emergency call telephone service.
All of these emergency services are summoned through the ECC of one of the four principal services listed above: Other emergency services may also be reached through the 999 system, but do not maintain permanent emergency control centres. These services are as follows, listed in the order of percentage of calls received: In the United Kingdom there are four emergency services which maintain full-time emergency control centres (ECC), to which 999 emergency calls may be directly routed by emergency operators in telephone company operator assistance centres (OAC).
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