h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

As the article picks up your mobile is capable of being used to make an emergency call even when you think it isn't. So the phone in your pocket sharing space with a set of keys conveniently positioned over the "9" key is just waiting for a little tap on the connect key to start a bogus 999 call. They make up a huge percentage of all 999 calls. (I think it's over 50% now - but I'm sure someone will be able to verify or dismiss that figure)

If your phone has connected to 999 don't just hang up. Apologise and tell them you don't need help, otherwise it joins the list of calls that could have been made by someone who cannot speak for one reason or another (in the middle of a heart attack; dialling and then fainting etc.)

I'm not feeling smug here as my mobile has done this in the past.

Does it matter what brand phone, or is it a general policy decision of Unitedkingdomese cell-phone service?

Here in LA, our 911 service (which does what 999 does in our county) have requested everyone to lock their phones. I wonder at the different logics behind this.

Sea Change, I think it's a pretty universal thing with mobile phones being able to call an emergency number even if the keypad is locked.
Teh reasoning behind that would probably be that if you come to an emergency site and you don't have a mobile phone yourself, you could still use a mobile phone that you find at the scene of the accident even if it's locked by a PIN code as it can save lives.

Don't consider that as a fact, though, that's just my guess..

Oh, I see. With PIN locks, that's a good idea.

My phone tells you itself just what you need to do how to unlock it, so there's no defense against a non-emergency theft.

In the UK of course with 999 there's a much higher chance of repeated hits on the same button calling the emergency services.

It's estimated that at least 70% of calls to Los Angeles County 911 are unlocked mobile phones. The chance may be lower, but it's not doing us much good.

I think 999 is a better idea from an emergency standpoint, because there have been extremely stressful times in my life in which I was lucky to be able to hit even one particular phone key. The eyes were looking elsewhere and the fingers were a fumble, and my brain is oriented to 10-key, instead of phone-order.

Originally- when I was knee high to a grasshopper - we had to dial on a phone that HAD a dial.

When I was in scouts we were given the task of learning how to dial with our eyes closed - in case of an emergency involving darkness, smoke etc. The tip was to put one finger in the first hole "0" and then put another finger in the hole next to it, "9". Without taking your finger from the hole you made three turns and returns of the dial and hey presto you'd made a hoax call without a mobile phone!

You would've never have been able to do that in Sweden.. The dial phones had the 0 next to the 1 instead, so you'd have called 888 instead of 999. Then of course, back then , the number to call in Sweden was 90 000 and not 999, so it wouldn't have made a difference anyhow.