jedskipow
26th March 2012, 11:55 PM
000 is the official Australian emergency number
112 is a standard number for mobile phones that originated in Europe following an inquest.
106 if for TTY landline phones only (text to speech equipment for people with disabilities)
It is not possible to contact emergency services using the Short Message Service (SMS) on your mobile telephone.
112 arose because a young German fella died in Belgium when his mates couldn't get help because they had no provider coverage.
The Euro mob agreed that all providers and manuf would program their cells and phones so that 112 would link to that country's emergency services regardless of who the caller used as a provider or if the phone had credit or where the phone came from etc etc.
It was originally only on Euro manuf phones IE Nokia etc and in EU countries and it took many years for other countries and manuf to adopt.
Now that the Japs, Koreans etc have integrated 112 into their phone firmware you can pick up almost any phone in almost any country around the world (assuming same technology) and dial 112 and get help... no credit required, no international roaming required... just a live cell tower of any provider within range.
Edit: Copied The Evil Twin's reply to your original post here as it was more accurate
112 is a standard number for mobile phones that originated in Europe following an inquest.
106 if for TTY landline phones only (text to speech equipment for people with disabilities)
It is not possible to contact emergency services using the Short Message Service (SMS) on your mobile telephone.
112 arose because a young German fella died in Belgium when his mates couldn't get help because they had no provider coverage.
The Euro mob agreed that all providers and manuf would program their cells and phones so that 112 would link to that country's emergency services regardless of who the caller used as a provider or if the phone had credit or where the phone came from etc etc.
It was originally only on Euro manuf phones IE Nokia etc and in EU countries and it took many years for other countries and manuf to adopt.
Now that the Japs, Koreans etc have integrated 112 into their phone firmware you can pick up almost any phone in almost any country around the world (assuming same technology) and dial 112 and get help... no credit required, no international roaming required... just a live cell tower of any provider within range.
Edit: Copied The Evil Twin's reply to your original post here as it was more accurate