topic Re: Phoning emergency number in Everything else

Phoning emergency number

Surfer — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 07:37:34 GMT

Last night I had to dial 999 due to an urgent incident at our home. We live in a very poor or zero reception area and our mobile phones are set to make and receive calls through our wifi. For a reasonable network signal I need to walk up an incline about 100m or more and leave the patient alone at home.

What I did not know was that when you dial 999, mobile phones are programmed to force the call over a cellular network instead of Wi-Fi calling to ensure emergency services can access basic carrier tracking data and route the call through standard priority channels. This is not good when you are in a very poor reception area.

The result was phoning 999 3 times due to signal being very poor and breaking up constantly before the operator was able to get my name, number and address and phone back. I am unsure if there is a way around this issue as BT are shutting down land lines?

Re: Phoning emergency number

MisterW — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 07:48:01 GMT

I am unsure if there is a way around this issue as BT are shutting down land lines?

Get a voip (digital voice) service over your broadband

Re: Phoning emergency number

Surfer — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 07:59:39 GMT

Thanks. How will VOIP help as it is still Internet based? We have had VOIP previously, but saw no need to keep it as we use wifi for making and receiving calls. If we did switch to VOIP, we are then paying for a service that we may or may not use due to landlines being dumped? The last time we had to call 999 was about 3 - 4 years ago or perhaps even longer.

We live in a small village and all the neighbours in our cul de sac have the same issue. Approximately 7 households have poor reception so obviously network providers are not going to bother. Even having Star link will not help.

Re: Phoning emergency number

MisterW — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 08:06:36 GMT

Thanks. How will VOIP help as it is still Internet based?

You can make 999 calls over a voip connection. The number can be registered to an address just like a landline, so the emergency services will get that address reported.

The digital voice services provided as part of a combined service will almost certainly be registered to the address automatically. Third party voip services usually have an option to register an address for emergency calls

Re: Phoning emergency number

PhilipHeyes — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 08:11:30 GMT

VoIP phones have an Emergency Location address that is configured and confirmed
in the provider's on line account.

When a 999 calls starts, the Emergency Location address is available to the 999 call handler.

Re: Phoning emergency number

PhilipHeyes — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 08:23:25 GMT

Just having a rummage it would appear EE, O2, Vodafone, and Three support Wi-Fi calling to 999.

It might be time to confirm Wi-Fi calling is still working on your mobiles.

Re: Phoning emergency number

Surfer — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 08:28:13 GMT

Those providers all support calling 999 and there is no issue there. The issue is that by law the phones default to the network and you cannot use WiFi.

It seems an unnecessary charge is being pushed onto people who live in poor reception areas or another way to look at it is that we are being penalised for living in a poor reception area? Surely they should have thought of this before withdrawing landline services as we cannot be the only ones with this issue?

Re: Phoning emergency number

PhilipHeyes — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 08:42:50 GMT

The issue is that by law the phones default to the network and you cannot use WiFi.

This statement is false.

Re: Phoning emergency number

Surfer — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 08:58:29 GMT

I checked and a number of websites verify the same. It may not be law, but your phone will default to the nearest available network. Hopefully you will not need to find out the hard way.

However apparently to can register the phone with 999 and in an emergency text them with your name, location and details of the issue. If they phone back, the call is received over WiFi and crystal clear

Re: Phoning emergency number

pvmb — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 09:13:19 GMT

Clearly this is a new and unexpected issue.

@PhilipHeyes

"Just having a rummage it would appear EE, O2, Vodafone, and Three support Wi-Fi calling to 999."

"VoIP phones have an Emergency Location address that is configured and confirmed
in the provider's on line account."

I take it that "on line account" is the VoIP account? Could it also be an ISP registered account, particularly in the case of Wi-Fi calls?

Now, with no functioning landline, when home I use a Tesco (O2) Android* mobile phone via Wi-Fi calling with the phone switched to Aeroplane mode**. However, I purchased the phone outright, along with it's included Tesco Mobile SIM. So I have no mobile phone contract and no registered address with Tesco, AFAIK. So it would seem to only be Plusnet who have a record of my address, not Tesco or O2.

@Surfer
"Those providers all support calling 999 and there is no issue there. The issue is that by law the phones default to the network and you cannot use WiFi."

I wonder if this default 999 network calling can be adjusted in the phone settings - I have never paid much attention to the phone's inbuilt 'Emergency' settings. Perhaps, at my age, I should!

In my case, luckily the O2 mobile phone signal should normally be expected to work at home (and I have a secondary, operational 2G mobile on the EE network).

* As an aside: Is anyone as irritated as I am by Google's recent (cough!) 'Update' to the appearance of their Clock icon?

** Would a 999 call automatically override Aeroplane mode?

Re: Phoning emergency number

PhilipHeyes — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 09:19:31 GMT

@pvmb

For VoIP calls the Emergency Location info is set in the Sipgate or A&A etc online portal.

For Wi-Fi calls, the 999 call handler only sees your mobile number and will proceed to ask for your location,
one could be making a 999 call from home or in a hotel, the Wi-Fi / ISP does not provide location info.

If @Surfer is unable to make a 999 call over Wi-Fi calling the obvious conclusion is their Wi-Fi calling is not working or not enabled or not supported. The suggestions about 999 (or 112) only over mobile networks are a misunderstanding.

Re: Phoning emergency number

MisterW — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 09:20:24 GMT

I take it that "on line account" is the VoIP account?

Correct

Could it also be an ISP registered account, particularly in the case of Wi-Fi calls?

No, the ISP has no information as to which mobile network the phone is subscribed to. Whilst Wifi calling uses the internet provided by the ISP , it is only used to establish a VPN connection to the mobile network systems.

Re: Phoning emergency number

pvmb — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 09:41:43 GMT

@pvmb
"Could it also be an ISP registered account, particularly in the case of Wi-Fi calls?"

@MisterW

"No, the ISP has no information as to which mobile network the phone is subscribed to. Whilst Wifi calling uses the internet provided by the ISP , it is only used to establish a VPN connection to the mobile network systems."

Is the originating IP address of the Wi-Fi call not then available to the phone service? I was thinking in terms of Wi-Fi call from home via Plusnet router to mobile network = user's network IP address known to ISP, or username from network login via router. Would then have to be made available to phone network. So this is technically not possible/practical/legal/currently enabled?

Re: Phoning emergency number

pvmb — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 09:36:47 GMT

@PhilipHeyes

"The suggestions about 999 (or 112) only over mobile networks are a misunderstanding."

Could you please explain this further. What is the "misunderstanding"?

Also, do you know if a 999 call would automatically override a mobile phone's Aeroplane mode?

Re: Phoning emergency number

MisterW — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 09:43:30 GMT

So this is technically not possible/practical/currently enabled?

Technically the IP address from which Wifi calling is being used is available to the mobile network but they wont use it, there's no need!. They will use the IMSI of the sim to identify the calling phone, that's all they need.

Even if they did use the IP, getting back to ISP account information from an IP address wouldn't be possible. AFAIK getting that information requires a court order ?

Re: Phoning emergency number

pvmb — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 09:53:54 GMT

@MisterW

"They will use the IMSI of the sim to identify the calling phone, that's all they need."

Forgot about that! However, in my case, AFAICS, that wouldn't get them anywhere. It's just a mobile phone.

Unless, again, they can get the address of the user of the phone with that IMEI from the ISP. In fact, more to the point - the number of my mobile phone is itself already registered in my Plusnet account as my contact number. So, the phone company would just need to identify the call number as coming via a Plusnet home network account. Shouldn't be impossible?

Re: Phoning emergency number

Surfer — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 09:46:23 GMT

Our WiFi works perfectly for all calls and there is no issue except if calling 999 and then it defaults to the the network even though the phone is set to receive and make calls using WiFi! If anyone doubts that, they can contact the manufacturer of the phone!

Re: Phoning emergency number

pvmb — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 10:11:03 GMT

@Surfer

"If anyone doubts that, they can contact the manufacturer of the phone!"

If it's an Apple phone:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/108066

"When cellular service is available, your iPhone uses it for emergency calls. If you turn on Wi-Fi Calling and cellular service isn't available, emergency calls might use Wi-Fi Calling. Your device's location may be used to aid response efforts when you place an emergency call, regardless of whether you enable Location Services."

Interesting. Seems to suggest location info is passed along with an Emergency call - whether Wi-Fi or phone network call?

I also seem to remember something like this mentioned in the Settings of my Android phone, about certain things automatically using phone location info even if Location is set to 'Off' by the user (as it normally is in my case).

Not really the sort of thing you can play around with to test, is it? 😎

Re: Phoning emergency number

Surfer — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 10:13:43 GMT

Just to add you do not need to supply your address to a seller of a phone or to a supplier if you are using PAYG. No way of them knowing who you are unless you supply details. For us registering our phones with 999 is the way forward.

Re: Phoning emergency number

PhilipHeyes — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 13:31:34 GMT

So this was all to do with the bizarre behaviour of your iPhone !

To ensure Wi-Fi Calling is the only option when at home :-

1) Enable Aircraft mode

2) Just turn on Wi-Fi