000 - 112 - 911 Emergency calls

There's been a discussion (with few facts) this morning on ABC radio about the use of 112 for emergency calls for mobiles.

The discussion started because one NSW Fire Brigade station put up a sign recommending people use 112 for emergency calls from Mobiles. They were directed to change this to 000 because this is the official policy - and there's a good reason for it - from fixed phones, ONLY 000 will work.

I took the SIM card out of my phone and tested it - all three numbers (000 - 112 - 911) took me through to the same 000 recorded announcement. This is no surprise - there's only one Emergency Service Answer Point service, using a centre in Sydney and one in Melbourne, with either capable of taking the full traffic and passing calls through to the Police, Fire or Ambulance.

The reason for suggesting 112 was that it gave some priority for calls, but this is a myth. The network just routes calls from any of these numers (000 - 112 - 911) to the same ESAP.

So there's no point in training kids to phone any number other than 000 in an emergency.

In fact it's dangerous to teach them any other number, as 112 and 911 calls will fail from a home phone.