Further to what Bojan has said,
a bit more reading on the 112 vs 000 numbers here:
http://www.bwrs.org.au/?q=emergency-comms
(lifted from a Bushwalking/Emergency services Australia website)
The guy at the top left looks a bit like our Hagar
Interestingly they say this:
quote:
If you are using a mobile phone to dial emergency, the first number to try is 000. This will connect you to the emergency operator using your normal phone provider. If you cannot connect to the operator with 000 for any reason (including no coverage) it is recommended you then try 112. 112 will also connect you to the same operator as 000 emergency but has a number of additional benefits:
- It is an international standard that a mobile phone dialling 112 is an emergency call. If you dial 112 with a GSM phone anywhere in the world it will connect you to the local emergency operator.
- 000 will only work with the phone service provider you are subscribed to. If any provider detects a 112 call they will connect you. This means, for instance, if you are a Vodaphone customer and are in an area which does not have Vodaphone coverage but does have Telstra coverage, Telstra will connect a 112 call for you. Telstra would not connect a 000 call made on a Vodaphone mobile phone.
- If a mobile phone network is running at capacity a 112 call will cause a non-emergency call to be dropped immediately to make capacity available. This does not necessarily occur with 000. This means if the network is running at capacity and you call 000 you may not get connected.
A bit further down it mentions the death of a bushwalker and the part that 000 vs 112 played in the Emergency services response.
I believe it was because of point 3 above.
also: SMS...a few important things about that too:
This is a common problem in bushwalking areas - your phone is picking up a weak signal from the network but it is not enough to make a call. In this case we recommend you try sending an SMS. It takes a fraction of the battery power to send (or receive) an SMS compared to a voice conversation, it works on much lower signal strengths than voice conversations and it has built in error-checking so your message should get through correctly. However there are some important limitations about using SMS in emergencies:
- The 000 emergency line cannot receive SMS messages. You must send the SMS message to somebody you know with a mobile phone and they must contact 000 on your behalf.
- SMS messages are usually sent to the recipient immediately, but on rare occasions can take a period of time to get through the network before being sent to the recipient's phone.
- If your friend has their mobile turned off they will not get the message until they switch their phone on, and you have no way of knowing this.
These problems mean obviously SMS is not an ideal way of summoning assistance - but if an SMS is all you can send it is better than nothing!
Steve