4PetesSake wrote on Nov 4^th, 2006 at 5:47pm:

But you overlook digit translation.  Even in the mid-1980's we were programming individual ISDXs to ensure calls were sent by the cheapest route.  I'm sure such things are part of SOP for PNN management.

4PetesSake wrote on Nov 4^th, 2006 at 5:47pm:

Under the SAYNOTO0870.COM title at the top it will say if you have any. You can click where it says how many messages you have.

Also, go to Profile -> Modify -> PM Preferences and set "Notify by email" to Yes if you want the forum to send you an email when you get a PM.

Police Officers and Police Staff only use short codes for dialling other Stations within their own Force area. There are no short codes for dialling other Forces. They just use whatever they can find in the Almanac or on the Internet. The other way is for Officers and Staff to ask the Force Control Room but they just give out whatever number they find in the Almanac. BT must be laughing all the way to the bank.

My local Force has recently gone over to an 0845 number which they have spent loads of money publicising, however the old Goe one still works fine however there has been talk of it being phased out.

Dave, thanks for telling me where to look to see if I have any PM's - So obvious, I don't know how I missed it.

4PetesSake wrote on Nov 4^th, 2006 at 5:47pm:


There is an option you can set in Profile to send you an email when a new PM arrives and/or for a Pop Up box to appear telling you there is a new PM when you visit the forum.

Unfortunately neither of these options are turned by default so unless you enable them you will indeed be unaware when somebody sends you a new PM.  I recommend you enable these notifcation features.

In my view both PM options should be turned on by default when a member joins the forum and only turned off if people genuinely don't want the PM facility.  Sadly this is not the case at the present time.

It looks like I started a right one here! I have done some research and it appears we now have access to these numbers, although like all calls from Airwave they are subject to monitoring, however our force doesn't want them used on a full time basis, we are to use the geo alternatives (we have a very large file in most control rooms)

Another thing to note is the fact that O2 Airwave is a DIFFERENT network from O2 GSM, it used different transmitters (TeTRA)  normally in protected locations, and the network does have other functionality built in, for instance should it fail, a group of people in a local area and change settings on radios and still talk to each other, however it has some very worring faults as well.

But it is interesting to note that most forces now use 0845 numbers for public contact, however they all have geo contact numbers too, but you have to dig deep to find them.

Would TeTRA have made any difference on 7/7? No i don't think so, we was using TeTRA then, and it does NOT work underground yet, and it took o2 quite along time to get systems inplace at Russell Sq. for it to work underground.

FLG wrote on Nov 11^th, 2006 at 2:24pm:
The Sitefinder website does list TETRA transmitters (well it listed one not far from ours) but I agree for security reasons there are possibly some hidden.

bbb_uk wrote on Nov 12^th, 2006 at 10:12am:


They should care because the extra charge makes people more inclined to call 999/112 instead which their 999/112 operators really don't want to happen.

Also with 101 now ditched and no prospect of Ofcom returning 0845 to geographic priced calls in the near future the whole issue of the inappropriate use of 0845 numbers by the Police again comes to the fore.

The most appropriate people to take this up with are the County Councillors on the Police Authority for each force as they ultimately have the power to force change on the Police, especially if the social exclusion issue due to premium charges for 0845 from PayPhones and PAYG mobiles can be pointed out. [/quote]

NGMsGhost wrote on Nov 12^th, 2006 at 11:48pm:

So, in my case, that'll be Essex County Council then.

That used to be 01245 492211 and, now, it's NOT!