Caller to the emergency number 112 will be identified even if using a mobile phone, from Nov. 20

Romania’s emergency number 112 will be completely functional starting with November 20 and until then the caller will be identified within a two-meter distance from the location of the call, even on mobile phones, according to the IT&C minister.

The European Commission in December 2007 decided to start the infringement procedure against Romania because the sole European emergency number 112 did not function properly.

This service will be tested from October 15, IT&C Minister Karoly Borbely said, adding the 112 emergency number should work at European standards and also help trace people who call and differentiate between urgent situations and false calls. Last year 33 million calls out of a total 39 million were false, he added.

The country's Special Telecommunications Service (STS) which administers the 112 service said the accuracy of the solution used to identify the caller on the cell phone should be improved, explaining that now a person can be traced only while during the telephone conversation. Once this ended, there is no way to localize the caller and this makes it hard to warn those who place false calls.

The European legislation regarding telecommunications imposes the member states to provide free access to emergency services when dialing the sole European emergency number 112. Also the member states have to guarantee that the operators of the emergency services can localize the call maker from both mobile and land phone.

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