"NY" wrote in message
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"Robin" wrote in message
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On 09/08/2019 16:15, NY wrote:

Even before that, I'd expect an emergency control room to have all the
paper OS maps, maybe unfolded, laminated and mounted on boards for extra
durability, for the area that they cover. (*)

I suggest it is mobile phones which cause many of the problems. Before
they came along the location of the landline was known to the 999
operator who could pass it on the the services, and most callers would
have been able to say what they had done to get /to/ the phone from which
the services could work back.

True, but mobile phones have also reduced the time between the incident
occurring and the phone call to the emergency services, because people
don't have to start searching for a public phone. And a panic, I wonder
how many people can give correct instructions of where the incident is in
relation to the phone.

With a GPS fix (lat/long or OS, depending on what software is on your
phone) the emergency services in the 21 century should be able to pinpoint
you. Most in-car satnavs have an emergency-services-location menu option
(for those people who bother to work out where it is), and I always have
my phone with GPS turned on, so it only takes a few seconds to start GPS
Status (other apps are available!) to give a readout in OS "AB 1234 5678"
format.

I've heard conflicting stories about how much information about your
location is sent by a mobile phone when you make a 999 call: some people
say a full GPS reference is sent (assuming GPS is turned on at the phone),

It doesn’t have to be turned on on the phone, the phone turns
it on when a call is made to 999, 911 or 000 in our case.

some people say the phone estimates its position roughly from knowing
which masts it is near,

That’s whats done when the phone doesn’t have gps.

and some people say that no info is sent. I know when my wife called 999
to report an emergency while I was driving, the operator knew exactly
where we were and said "you're passing a side-road to X... now!" even
before my wife had said where she was. That suggests an accurate and
frequently-updated position is passed to them.