Thread:Comments:'Completely irresponsible' woman called emergency services to report theft of snowman/999?/reply (7)

112 was in use in a few European countries, and then written into the GSM standard. That is why access to it is so widespread. It was even codified in mobile standards that the number should be reachable without a SIM in a phone.

999 is the very-long-established emergency services number in the UK. This was established pre-switched phone networks, at a time when rotary dial phones were all you had and pulse dialling was the standard - on both sides of the Atlantic. 111 was not used (the fastest number to dial on a rotary phone) because telegraph lines, clattering together in the wind, could accidentally dial 111.