From today, mobile phone owners in the UK will be able to call the emergency services using any available network. Previously, calls to 999 (or 112) were only available on the caller’s own network. Some mobiles would display “emergency calls only” if another network was available – but there was no inter-network ‘roaming’ agreement to allow the call to be connected.
This emergency mobile roaming agreement is the result of a joint effort between Ofcom, the mobile network operators, emergency authorities and fixed-line operators. [Ofcom]