 New
mobile guidelines in place |
| New
mobile guidelines in place |
| BT, along with
Cable and Wireless, have given guidelines to their 999 operators
following a surge in the number of accidentally dialed emergency calls
from mobile phones.
The companies have teamed up with the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) to draw up new guidelines. If a silent call is made, the emergency operators will keep the line open for two minutes and ask questions. If there is no reply and no sounds of anything untoward, the call will be disconnected. Last year, over 25 million 999 calls were handled by BT and Cable & Wireless emergency operators, and of these, around 3.5 million were made from mobile phones without the owner being aware, states the Press Association. Police authorities have been looking at ways to prevent the problem, including locks on phones which can not be overridden by 999, and making the 9 key hard to press. |