EU 112 Day Widget

Today is the European 112 Day! Because the date is 11/2 - just like the number - see!

112 is the European wide emergency services number. Wherever you are in the EU, dialling 112 will get you through to the local emergency services. In fact, most GSM networks outside of the EU will also route your call correctly.

This is an important day. Dialling 112 could save your life. Sadly, the UK isn't doing anything to promote it.

So, what better way to celebrate than by designing a JIL widget to allow you to quickly dial 112 in an emergency? (That's a rhetorical question...)

JIL Widget

I've written before about the JIL SDK and my professional involvement with it.

The JIL SDK allows us access to the telephony subsystem.  This allows us to directly place a call - usually via the native dialer application.  It's a very simple call, all you do is pass it a string.  It will take 0-9+#*.  So, you can use it to call USSD commands.  Annoyingly, you can't get information back from the commands - a problem also present in Android.

So, the code is simply

<script type="text/javascript">
    Widget.Telephony.initiateVoiceCall("112");
</script>

That's it.

Logo

The EU has a logo that they want people to use for 112 promotion.

Their licensing terms are very enlightened (for a government organisation)

Any organisation, institution, company or individual willing to inform citizens of the European emergency number can use the materials informing about the 112 and general logo of the 112 which are available on our website. Regardless of the size or the branch of economic/social/cultural activity, all the entities concerned with safety and emergency issues are welcomed to use these materials and ideas for their campaigns.

Download

Download and install the widget.

On the Vodafone H1, you may need to dial *#35767# to remove the H1’s security check.

If you’re interest in developing for this platform, there’s a €1,000,000 bounty up for grabs.  There’s also a Dev Camp at Mobile World Congress this year.

I work for Vodafone – this is my personal blog, I don’t to speak for them.  All opinions, claims and mistakes are my own.