Emergency Phone Numbers on Locked Handsets

[Mike Temporale]

If you see this screen on your Smartphone, then you're one small button push away from emergency assistance. Did you know that you are able to dial 911 even when the keypad is locked? And I'm not talking about the advanced pass-code locking. Using the basic method of holding down the End key to lock your handset. Why is this a big deal, you may be asking. I'll tell you. My daughter, who is almost 3 years old, took my cellphone out of my coat pocket the other night and was pretending to call her friends. I just happened to notice the screen had 911 plastered at the top of it. Acting quickly, I was able to prevent another accidental 911 call by my daughter. ops: So be careful of your handset, even if you've locked the keys. The emergency workers are busy enough. :wink:

I wouldn't mind seeing this feature turned off. I really don't like the idea of any keys working while the handset is locked. However, I do understand why it is designed this way.

[Mike Temporale]

If you see this screen on your Smartphone, then you're one small button push away from emergency assistance. Did you know that you are able to dial 911 even when the keypad is locked? And I'm not talking about the advanced pass-code locking. Using the basic method of holding down the End key to lock your handset. Why is this a big deal, you may be asking. I'll tell you. My daughter, who is almost 3 years old, took my cellphone out of my coat pocket the other night and was pretending to call her friends. I just happened to notice the screen had 911 plastered at the top of it. Acting quickly, I was able to prevent another accidental 911 call by my daughter. ops: So be careful of your handset, even if you've locked the keys. The emergency workers are busy enough. :wink:

I wouldn't mind seeing this feature turned off. I really don't like the idea of any keys working while the handset is locked. However, I do understand why it is designed this way.

[Airscanner]

You sometimes hear those stories about the child saving the parent's life by calling 911. Hopefully when she is a little older she will know not to call it for fun.

[Mike Temporale]

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that she meant to call 911. She just randomly pushed some buttons.

[Airscanner]

oh, maybe you should start teaching her to call 911 for emergencies then

or maybe wait a year or two to do that

I have no idea what the recommended age is for that.

[Spatulator]

I would personally want to make sure this feature is always enabled. If I were incapacitated and unable to call for help and someone else grabbed my cell phone but was unfamiliar with how to unlock it, it could save lives. The trade off really isn't a big deal, accidental calls to 911 would be so rare. The operators are used to dealing with them, and calls like "My neighbors dog just wont stop yapping"are even more common. They would be more understanding of a toddler dialing by accident than these fools that dont understand the meaning of an emergency.

[conflagrare4]

This is a standard feature on all cell phones.

All cell phones can call "411" and "911" with keypads lock and/or without sim card.

I suspect it's a federal regulation.

[Jerry Raia]

Either that or the carriers are affraid of lawsuits.

[Mike Temporale]

Originally Posted by conflagrare4

All cell phones can call "411" and "911" with keypads lock and/or without sim card.

411 doesn't work on my phone. :?

[Arne Hess]

Originally Posted by conflagrare4

This is a standard feature on all cell phones.

All cell phones can call "411" and "911" with keypads lock and/or without sim card.

I suspect it's a federal regulation.

Not to forget to mention "112" which is the official GSM world wide emergency number and used by all/most carriers (outside N.-America because that's what a standard is for :wink: ) for emergencies. Even if the local emergency number is a different one, GSM networks are smart enough to translate "112" into the local emergency number.
So keep "112" in mind if you are going abroad...

But as you said - even without a SIM card or if you are out of coverage of your own network (but another GSM network is available) you can dial the emergency numbers and best of all is - this calls have the highest priorities in GSM networks which means it might kicks out someone else, if you need to make your emergency call!

[Neil]

Ah, the beauty of emergency dialing I actually owned this screen for Smartphone, so I can provide some insight.

This is a GSM Association requirement. From the SIM lock screen you must be able to dial any of the emergency number codes associated with the handset. On Smartphone the default numbers are 911 (US/Canada), 112 (Most of europe), and 08 (Mexico). This list can be configured through SIM card. The relevant specification is 02.30, section 4.4.2.2 and Annex A.

The screen you have above though isn't SIM lock, it's keyguard. So why does this work there? We went with the spirit of the regulation and made keyguard and device lock also allow emergency dialing.

Another interesting aspect to this is we don't actually send the number you dialed to the network. Instead we say "oh, you dialed an emergency number" and send a special command to the network that says "emergency call coming through!". This means you can dial ANY of the supported emergency numbers and you'll reach emergency services. You can actually give this a try (heh) by dialing 08 and pressing send. You'll get 911.

Yet another factoid about this: in the U.K. mobile operators are not actually required to connect you to emergency services if you aren't one of their customers. The mobile operators actually pay a hefty fee for each emergency call (on the order of $40 I think!), so there are actually some operators that don't let the calls go through if you're roaming on their network.

Neil