hahaha, this is ridiculous. Three is having an outage on their network.

This is a goddamn mobile network. There's a fricking outage! This isn't a bloody ADSL service, it's a fricking phone carriage! I Can't call anyone except for Customer Care. I wonder if 000 works?

Jesus. Roaming to Telstra doesn't even work. That's wholesale pathetic.

* at least it's cheap

ring 112 for emergencies on mobiles okay?

000 works. i've had to call it before

What, while there's an outage?

000 will only use your carriers infrastructure to make the call whereas 112 will use any mobile companies infrastructure. ie. if you are with optus and out of optus range but there is a telstra tower nearby, 112 will use the telstra tower.

3 sure do suck
however my 3 phone is working fine - where'd you hear they were having an outage? I'm too lazy to go looking =]

Wow, that's awesome. (about 112). But I've never ever heard of it, and even if I had, in the moment of panic *knocks wood* I would be calling 000 99 times out of 100. Better if 000 used anyone's spectrum.

Jim: from my back porch. Can't get 3 or roam on Telstra (which I typically do). Calling Customer Care on 13320 there is a recorded message saying yes, our network is borked.

Wow. Telstra certainly has something going for it!

On the 000 and 112 subject they teach you in first aid to try 000 first because if you are out in the middle of nowhere or just aren't sure where you are if 000 goes through they can pinpoint the closest carrier tower from your network that the call is being relayed through to help locate you.

There was actually a case where a guy was hit by a car on a street in brissy but his friend called 112 and the operator didn't ask what city it happened in, the call had automatically routed to sydney and had a street of the same name.
They thought it was a prank call for a bit untill they found out the guy had bled to death because the ambulence had been dispatched in the wrong city!

112 apparently cant be traced because it goes for the closest tower from any carrier and is shot to a worldwide centre before being routed back to your country and in fact with an aussie phone you can call 112 overseas and have it work for that very reason.

Just some phone trivia for you :D.

last edited by Xy at 19:37:45 22/Sep/06

doh
must be limited to certain areas

3 will fix it if you rage about it on the internet

112 apparently cant be traced because it goes for the closest tower from any carrier and is shot to a worldwide centre before being routed back to your country and in fact with an aussie phone you can call 112 overseas and have it work for that very reason.

Your entire post is wrong. 112 simply diverts to 000. There's no international centre involved, it just hits the mobile network and goes straight to 000. Oh, and don't dial 112 from a CDMA phone - it won't work. That's ok though, CDMA's days are numbered.

The reason it works overseas is that the 112 is set up to divert to the local country's emergency number. When you're roaming say on Orange UK, Orange's exchange has the diversion on the 112 number set to 999. T-Mobile's exchange in the US will have the diversion set to 911. Its an emergency number built into the GSM spec and is handled locally by each individual carrier and the national emergency number - not some international emergency routing centre. Can you imagine if such a facility failed!?

Oh and dRanged - of course its not ADSL. It's inherently more complicated than ADSL - its going to fail at some point. Try locking your phone to GSM-mode only and manually selecting your network as Telstra. If that still doesn't work the Hutch GSM node is dead and you're going to be s*** out of luck.

last edited by exo at 20:11:45 22/Sep/06

*Shrugs* I relayed what I was told at my first aid course, take the issue up with the trainers.

1223 for directory assistance too

Oh and dRanged - of course its not ADSL. It's inherently more complicated than ADSL - its going to fail at some point. Try locking your phone to GSM-mode only and manually selecting your network as Telstra. If that still doesn't work the Hutch GSM node is dead and you're going to be s*** out of luck.

So I'm s*** out of luck. I manually select Telstra for GSM Roaming fulltime, as Three has no coverage here. I'm just using them for cheap Roaming rates :)

UMTS, well, yes, that's a fricking nightmare. Phase delay, power control, ragged walsh chips, forward error correction, variable rate codecs, the list goes on. Don't you worry I hear all about it......

By reference to ADSL I meant that it is still typically a luxury at the moment, whilst you would expect a phone service, a modern phone service, to work.

Oh all their call centres are in India. Fantastic

pfft noobs, the emergency number is 911. Everyone knows that

3 is really crappy at times..

pfft noobs, the emergency number is 911. Everyone knows that

Yeah they changed it in honour of those lost at the terrorist attacks on the world trade centre.

Yeah they changed it in honour of those lost at the terrorist attacks on the world trade centre.

It's world trade center you ignoramus yank.

112 apparently cant be traced because it goes for the closest tower from any carrier and is shot to a worldwide centre before being routed back to your country and in fact with an aussie phone you can call 112 overseas and have it work for that very reason.

Your entire post is wrong. 112 simply diverts to 000. There's no international centre involved, it just hits the mobile network and goes straight to 000.

I was told in senior first aid to ALWAYS call 112 because it bounces to the nearest emergency help. I think it uses the same bouncing thingo that some walkie talkies use, that multiply the signal by heaps.

I was told the same thing ^

The only thing 112 has over 000 is that it uses any available carrier. For example, you have a Vodafone SIM and there's no Vodafone coverage in your area. However, if you were on Telstra you would have full coverage. Dialling 112 from your Vodafone SIM will connect you via Telstra's base station. Dialling 000 would not.

It doesn't just use phone carriers though.

If you are in the middle of nowhere it will call through radio towers or soemthing.

Billypoos, you're wrong - I'm a second level network & support tech with Telstra Mobiles. You cannot make an emergency call where there is zero mobile coverage.

ive never ever had a problem with 3 so you can all go suck a lolly pop!

Billypoos, you're wrong - I'm a second level network & support tech with Telstra Mobiles. You cannot make an emergency call where there is zero mobile coverage.

I believe you then (which makes more sense) but that's not what we were told in first aid AFAIR.

There's a lot of misinformation out there about the 112 number. Some people saying it uses a Satellite service for example, even when you're underground! Let me tell you, there's no way your palm-sized Nokia can make a satellite call. This is a satellite phone:
http://www.adventure4wd.com.au/hire_equipment/images/motorola_phone.jpg
Quite a bit larger than an N70 - and that's a recent model SatPhone too. I'm not trying to give you s***, just trying to educate you cause emergency calls are kind of an important thing to get right.

Aahhh actually not that you mention it I think that is what we were told - it goes to satellite...

are you sure there's no way it can use normal CB radio waves?

Positive. Mobiles can only talk to mobile towers. 112 means it will talk to any mobile tower around, regardless of carrier. 000 will only talk to your carrier's mobile tower. Technically if you're on Optus or you connect to an Optus base-station, a satellite for your call after you hit that base station, but that's beside the point.

Mobiles can have signal but be too far away to login to the tower before timeout to make a call.
For eg.
*Mobile sends out "Yo nigga need to make a call hook me up"
*Tower replys "Fo shizzle, got some ro-izzle so make some nizzle"
*Mobile receives wErd and sends back "aite hook me up wit dis number right here"
*Tower has already cancelled the slot and has opened it to the next request.

Dialing the emergency number disreguards the timeout and is prolly what you were told about in the course Billy.
So will only make a difference if your mobile is timing out usually due to distance from mobile tower.
CDMA never had this problem.

last edited by Fnukle at 12:44:44 23/Sep/06

CMDA doesn't have that problem because its Code-divisional, not time-divisional.

You also don't even need to have a SIM card in a phone to call 112.

educational!

I've never ever heard of that 112 number thing.

So is the outage over yet? Cos I was gonna sign up to 3 within the next couple of days.

Also, does 3 get reception in byron bay?

112 apparently cant be traced

I think that 000 can't be traced and that 112 can be.

3 doesnt have coverage in Byron, only Telstra coverage (IIRC). So you will be able to use it but you wont be able to use most of their data stuff.

Incidently I find my 3 service to be fantastic. 3G is just awesome for data and I get more coverage than any other provider can give me (except telstra but they are damn expensive).

Well as long as I can make calls and sms that's all I need.

*testing avatar