Testing 999

[FN-GM]

Hi,

 

We are setting up a new phone system.

 

I was wondering if we are allowed to test if 999 is working? Obviously don't want to wait until something for real happens!

 

I am after peoples real experiences etc. Googling brings up mixed results.

 

Thanks

Edited January 28, 2013 by FN-GM

[localzuk]

I was always told to follow a basic procedure:

 

Find out the non-emergency number for your region's 999 center and call them. Ask to speak to the supervisor and ask them what the procedure is for running a test 999 call to ensure your phone system calls 999 correctly.

 

Some regional centres will want you to tell them a time when you're going to be calling it, so its on record when you call etc...

 

It needs testing, no doubt about that.

[gaz350b]

Don't forget to make sure that you take into account ext 112!!!

 

When we moved to our new building the phone guys forgot about 112, 112 happen to be my extension, and it was actually calling emergency services instead...

[EduTech]

I have had to do this a few times recently, when you make the 999 call you just state to the initial operator when they ask you which service you require that you are a telecoms engineer and that you are testing 999 Emergency Services Number.

 

BUT! - Only make that call once, otherwise someone will be on your case!

 

You will find they might just hangup on your straight away. :-)

 

James.

[rh91uk]

Hi all, on the subject - is there a list of emergency numbers within the UK that we need to include when building a new telephone system? Going through the same thing here...

[MatthewL]

Bear in mind 101 for Police and also 111 which is starting to be rolled out for various NHS trusts, not as widely implemented but one to bear in mind too.

[twin--turbo]

You should test.

 

999

9999

99999 ( if your an old featurenet user )

112 ( avoid this as an extension number )

9112

99112 ( if you are an old featurenet user )

 

If your Phone Server covers geographical diverse sites then make sure there is a local route to PSTN so that the location can be determined by the line.

 

And always have a plain unpowered telephone plugged into a plain old phone line for backup.

 

Rob

[localzuk]

There's no need to avoid 112 or 999 as an extension number. We don't avoid them here. It is well known within our site that 9 is necessary to get an external number, so 9112 or 9999 are needed to call out to those numbers.

 

And you also don't need to have a phone plugged in as backup all the time, just the capability for one - we have a phone sat on a shelf next to our fax line ready to be used if necessary. Otherwise you will also potentially be introducing annoying ringing into your school!

[twin--turbo]

There's no need to avoid 112 or 999 as an extension number. We don't avoid them here. It is well known within our site that 9 is necessary to get an external number, so 9112 or 9999 are needed to call out to those numbers.

 

And you also don't need to have a phone plugged in as backup all the time, just the capability for one - we have a phone sat on a shelf next to our fax line ready to be used if necessary. Otherwise you will also potentially be introducing annoying ringing into your school!

 

Peronaly

 

I account for anyone needing to make an emergancy call, if your receptionist has a heart attack in front of Joe Blogs and there is no one else arround then Joe ( who has no idea of the phone system config) should be able to dial 999 , 112 for help. and the Emergancy Emergancy phone needs to be available in an emergancy.

 

Rob

[Roberto]

There's no need to avoid 112 or 999 as an extension number. We don't avoid them here. It is well known within our site that 9 is necessary to get an external number, so 9112 or 9999 are needed to call out to those numbers.

 

You're not worried that someone will need the emergency services and will be in too much of a panic to remember that stuff under pressure? Or that someone who is unfamiliar with your system, a new starter say, is the one that has to make the call?

[tech_guy]

Go ahead and phone 999 - and report a theft - David Cameron and his cronies have stolen our pensions....

[januttall]

There's no need to avoid 112 or 999 as an extension number. We don't avoid them here. It is well known within our site that 9 is necessary to get an external number, so 9112 or 9999 are needed to call out to those numbers.

 

And you also don't need to have a phone plugged in as backup all the time, just the capability for one - we have a phone sat on a shelf next to our fax line ready to be used if necessary. Otherwise you will also potentially be introducing annoying ringing into your school!

 

it needs to be set up so that any and all can dial the ES easily without having to remember the leading 9, FYI ringing 9 or 99 from an external line will also be patched through to 999. but the 112 should be set to go straight through your system too as its the international ES number.

Edited January 29, 2013 by januttall

[Willott]

Where does the requirement for not having the leading 9 come from? From what I remember, on military bases you have to dial the leading 9, and from what I remember my wife telling me from when she worked in hospitals there was a leading 9 for calling ES. As long as the procedure is clearly stated by phones, there should be no issue - in fact, most of the fire action stickers have blank space for you to fill in how to call the fire brigade...

 

Ours is setup so that you hit 9 before any external number, including 999 and 112

[X-13]

most of the fire action stickers have blank space for you to fill in how to call the fire brigade...

 

 

[localzuk]

Nope, you do NOT have to miss the 9 out from internal phone systems. I have not seen a single commercial system that had this set up in this way. Lancaster university doesn't have this set up either - calling 999 puts you through to an internal university security desk even, at least when I was there (same as Cardiff Uni)! And everyone was told not to direct call 999 as the campus security need to be included to direct the emergency services to the right place etc...

[twin--turbo]

Where does the requirement for not having the leading 9 come from

 

It's the universal standard access number for an outside line. But on most systems you can make it whatever you like or not have one at all (not recomended) .

 

If you were ever on featurenet , with your own system behind it you would dial 9 to get off your phone system and onto featurenet , and then a second 9 to get off featurenet. Dialing 90 would get the featurenet operator for your featurenet group.

 

Rob

[MatthewL]

we also have 2222 and 3333 in the hospital which are numbers used elsewhere too. 2222 for a crash call and 3333 for a fire.

[EduTech]

For Reference I had to do it again this morning for another Lync Enterprise Voice Installation, When you ring 999 once you have stated your a a telecoms engineer for example and that your testing they will just take down your initials and then you both say goodbye! :-)

 

Simples!

 

James.

[MatthewL]

I have just emailed our telephony supplier to ask them their views on it, once I hear back I will post.

[MatthewL]

Response is:

 

Call 999 explain that you are testing and ask them to confirm CLI and get them to acknowledge but one of his engineers tells him if you are doing numinous connective test calls, call the local police first to explain, they will give you a code to clear, not sure if this is correct

 

Hope this helps.

[Roberto]

Nope, you do NOT have to miss the 9 out from internal phone systems. I have not seen a single commercial system that had this set up in this way. Lancaster university doesn't have this set up either - calling 999 puts you through to an internal university security desk even, at least when I was there (same as Cardiff Uni)! And everyone was told not to direct call 999 as the campus security need to be included to direct the emergency services to the right place etc...

 

You're right, you don't have to miss out the 9 from internal systems. Not sure what you mean when you say you haven't seen a single system that had this set up this way; all the systems I've worked with can allow you to configure all kinds of responses to different patterns of numbers being dialled and "999", "911", "112", etc are just a bunch of numbers to an internal phone system, so it's simply down to the phone system's admin how those are processed.

 

In my opinion it makes things better if someone dialling '999' in a panic doesn't get an unresponsive phone. Not everyone will agree but that's how I see it.

 

And you're also right that re-directing to the switchboard/security is a good and sensible idea. Totally agree. That's what we used to do until someone got in a flap and decided it was wrong and ordered us to change it. But routing emergency calls to an internal emergency call handling system of some kind is different from making people dial four 9s for the emergency services.

[jamesfed]

Having setup two phone systems so far I've called 999, waited for it to connect (don't hang up before you get to speak to someone) - say that you are testing a newly installed phone system. Both times they have asked for my post code and initials and nothing more has been said.

[FN-GM]

Did the test today. All went fine.

 

Asked him to confirm the CID. We did so, took my initials. Didn't ask for a postcode. I also configured the system to record all 112 & 999 calls, this also worked. Now got a nice recording of myself.

[Gatt]

The uni where I work dont allow you to call 999 directly, instead you need to a specific internal number and report it to them, they then handle the actual call to 999

All our emergency notices have the internal number written on them.

 

This is mainly due to the building being spread out across campus, and if you rang 999 directly, they would inevitably go to the wrong location.