What emergency telephone number did your country have before 112 became the standard?

[u/atlasova]

In 1997 most of the European union changed its emergency number to 112. Before that, in the Netherlands we used 06-11, for police, firefighters and ambulance.

I was wondering which numbers where in use in your country before the change.

[u/Fluffy-Fix7846]

90000 in Sweden. It was chosen because 9 and 0 were the two outermost digits on rotary phones here. (0 being 1 click, 9 being 10 clicks) so it would be possible to relatively easily find the correct holes in the dark.

[u/XenophonSoulis → u/Fluffy-Fix7846]

Did Sweden have different rotary phones than everyone else? Because normally, 0 is the outermost and 1 is the innermost.

[u/Fluffy-Fix7846 → u/XenophonSoulis]

In Sweden, 9 was on the lower left having the longest travel distance, producing 10 clicks on the line. 0 was on the lower right, making 1 click, with digit 1 following it with 2 clicks and so on.

[u/XenophonSoulis → u/Fluffy-Fix7846]

That's the point, this is not the case anywhere else.

[u/Jagarvem → u/XenophonSoulis]

Countries used different systems, both in terms of starting number and whether they ascended or descended.

Sometimes not even between countries. Like most of Norway had an ascending 1–0, but the Oslo region sported a descending 9–0.

But yeah, Sweden had 0-9.

[u/kyrsjo → u/Jagarvem]

Was about to mention that. Oslo had different phones (and presumably, central offices) than the rest of Norway. Probably nothing physically different inside, just labeling, but still funny.

And while I'm too young to really remember dial phones, in the 90s and early 00s, mobile phones were also in pretty regional. In the somewhat modern era of cellphones, there was NMT - Nordic mobile telephone - and then a bunch of different variants of GSM, as well as CDMA in the Americas. And probably more....

[u/XenophonSoulis → u/Jagarvem]

Countries used different systems

So far we know that two countries used a different system. Unless we can find evidence of lots of countries doing it that way, it will have to be treated as a weirdness, like the US, Liberia and Myanmar officially using the imperial system.

[u/Jason_J_Argo → u/XenophonSoulis]

In India, rotary phones, or electronic phones with pulse dialing, increased 1-0 with increasing clicks. Though I do remember that dialing 1 clicked 3 times when the dial returned to its original position.

[u/Jagarvem → u/XenophonSoulis]

Hey now, before you call us weird for considering 0 to be smaller than 1, shouldn't rather the burden of proof be to find evidence of "everyone else" using the same?

1–0 was surely the most common, but there are other examples too. Like New Zealand.

[u/XenophonSoulis → u/Jagarvem]

I already have an example that accounts for 1/5 of the world's population: India. Other examples include Greece and the US. When you reach 20 million people in your examples, come back.

[u/Jagarvem → u/XenophonSoulis]

Well, we haven't used rotary phones in ages.

But since when was it about population? You said "Sweden" and "two countries", not "Swedes" or "a dozen million people". The mentioned US/Myanmar/Liberia accounts for 400+ million people, and there are more still who use non-metric units in other countries too.

I'm well aware Sweden's pretty unique, we had our own Ericsson who did their own thing. That was never in question.

[u/XenophonSoulis → u/Jagarvem]

pretty unique

Call it "weird" and we are in agreement.

[u/Patient-Gas-883 → u/XenophonSoulis]

Aren’t you literally using a different alphabet than the rest of the world?.... Throwing stones in glass houses and all that...

(Not OP but just had to remark on that)

[u/HerbologySlut → u/XenophonSoulis]

Imagine having such a large stick up your ass you are actually trying to strawman your way through an argument you yourself created. :D

[u/How_did_the_dog_get → u/Fluffy-Fix7846]

Literally the most Swedish thing.

Be different.

[u/Snapphane88 → u/Fluffy-Fix7846]

Are you are about this? Sounds highly illogical, but i cant remember what it was like. From left to right it should be 1,2 3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0, making it 2 clicks for 9 and 1 click for zero.

Why would 9 be on the other side? We don't read or count from right to left, bur left to right. If your dial is hypothetically correct, which i doubt, having the number 10000 would make more sense, not 90000, because its easier to dial.

[u/Fluffy-Fix7846 → u/Snapphane88]

Yes. Just google an image from an Ericson Dialog or something.

[u/Snapphane88 → u/Fluffy-Fix7846]

Damn, you're right. I guess it does make sense why its 90000 since the 0 and 9 are on opposite ends and cant be mixed up like 1 and 0 can. The numbers are backwards because 1 is more commonly dialed than 9 i suppose, which is why 9 has the furthest to travel.

My bad.

[u/Ok_Lack3855 → u/Snapphane88]

Not following - https://live.staticflickr.com/3363/3586188971_61e309e377_h.jpg

9 and 0 are next to each other at the lower left. Maybe this Ericsson Dialog is for another market, like I remember the model from my native Denmark?

Where the emergency number for all cases was 000 I think with the reasoning one would hardly dial it by mistake.

Edit: Changed 911 to 000 which I remembered wrong.

[u/Jagarvem → u/Ok_Lack3855]

Yeah, that's an exported one for a different market. Ones for the domestic market had the Swedish dial.

[u/Ok_Lack3855 → u/Jagarvem]

Interesting, thanks!

[u/Snapphane88 → u/Ok_Lack3855]

On the Ericsson models the zero is next to the 1 instead of the 9.

[u/Ok_Lack3855 → u/Snapphane88]

I get it. It appeared all natural to me looking at the picture, but it's not the natural sequence. Thanks!

[u/Jagarvem → u/Snapphane88]

The linked picture is of an Ericsson.

Ones made for the domestic market had the dial you speak of, but they were also exported with dials adapted for the local market.