Roland Perry writes:

In message , at 11:31:39 on Sun, 17
Jul 2005, Doug Faunt N6TQS +1-510-655-8604 remarked:
We here is the US got
911 as a single emergency number in the late 60's, early 70's.

I recall staying in hotels in the USA in the 80's where there was a
list of numbers on the back of the door for the local Fire, Police
etc. These were the local phone numbers, not 911.

Perhaps, in those places where there is an integrated emergency
service, they have always used the number 911. But not everywhere has
had that integrated service for very long.
--

There are some places that don't have 911 service even yet. The dates
I was using were for the beginning of the service, since the original
discussion was about stating the emergency number as "nine eleven" and
that quickly proved to be a bad idea. Many of the public displays of
the number show it as 9-1-1, btw.

And it's not necessary to have integrated services, to have a 911
service. Here in Oakland, the police department administers the
service, but the dispatchers also directly handle EMS and fire calls.

OTOH, people are beginning to use the specific agency numbers again,
since the mobile telephone system isn't great at properly routing 911
calls. For instance, if you're anywhere near a state highway in
California, a 911 call will probably go to the state highway patrol
dispatcher, who then has to figure out what to do with it. So if you
want the local police or fire service, even if you're next to a
freeway, it's useful to know the direct number.

I do note that it took the US 30 years to follow the UK on a single
emergency number system.

The model has also taken hold to the point that the local
transportation information number here is 511. This is very new. And
brings the discussion back to close to topic for u.t.l.

73, doug