Unable to call local emergency number, only 112

Bug Reports
#1

REPRODUCIBILITY: 100%
OS VERSION: 4.5.0.24
HARDWARE: Xperia X
UI LANGUAGE: German
REGRESSION: don’t know

DESCRIPTION:

I tried calling the police but my phone wouldn’t let me call the local emergency number 117 from the lock screen, only 112. When dialing “117”, it showed “Only emergency numbers” above the dialing field and nothing happened.

I only used the emergency call feature from the lock screen, I didn’t try the phone app.

PRECONDITIONS:

I’m in Switzerland where we have local emergency numbers for police, firefighters, and ambulance. The local numbers immediately connect you to your local department, while 112 connects you to a center where they take your case and then forward your call manually.

At the time I was using a Norwegian SIM but a) emergency calls must be possible without a SIM card, and b) emergency numbers should be provided by the network (apparently?).

STEPS TO REPRODUCE:

  1. dial 117 in Switzerland → phone shows “Nur Notrufnummern” / “Only emergency numbers”, no call is made
  2. dial 112 → works

EXPECTED RESULT:

All emergency numbers should work.

ACTUAL RESULT:

The phone showed an error message and didn’t allow me to call 117.

MODIFICATIONS:

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

My phone acting up added more stress to an already stressful situation. This is something that should “just work” but it’s also something that I can’t legally test any further, so I can’t help with debugging.

I don’t have screenshots and I don’t recall the exact error message.

I tried gathering logs but devel-su journalctl -a -b --no-tail --no-pager > journal.txt only gave me logs for the last ~5 minutes, and devel-su journalctl -a --no-tail --no-pager > journal.txt gave me logs for a day in 2023, then -- Reboot --, followed by said ~5 minutes.

3 Likes
#2

What is it supposed to do? Should it allow to call for instance 110 (Police) in Germany or only 112? I don’t dare to try …

#3

Yes. Restricting it to 112 makes no sense at best, and is dangerous at worst.

There’s a list of emergency numbers on Wikipedia but as @nephros wrote in another thread (here), the active list should be read from the network.

Don’t try it, it’s usually illegal to waste the time of emergency services without an emergency.

1 Like
#4

Dials emergency number …

“Emergency Services - How can I direct your call - police fire or ambulance?”

“Ambulance - I need urgent help … My Jolla C2 phone is bricked!!”

“Duh!”

#5

‘117’ may not be an emergency number. Please see section 5.2 in https://www.gsma.com/newsroom/wp-content/uploads/NG.119-V1.2-2.pdf

The same applies to the German service number “116117”. That also does not seem to be an emergency number in the definition of mobile networks.

2 Likes
#6

Jolla / SailfishOS shall support at least the numbers as detailed in section 5.2 of this GSMA specification, i.e.:

  • Standard emergency numbers dialled by the user (112 and 911)
  • Any emergency call number stored on a SIM/USIM (only possible if SIM/USIM present)
  • 000, 08, 110, 999, 118 and 119 when a SIM/USIM is not present (these numbers are stored in the UE).
  • Additional emergency numbers that may have been downloaded by the serving network when the SIM/USIM is present.

Up to this point I have not read any indication that this is not the case, correct?

2 Likes
#7

Not quite correct. How do we know what is downloaded from the network? (And what is on the SIM?) Whether 117 is an emergency number per the GSMA spec may be unclear but at this point we’re just speculating.

Also, following the standard is just the minimum. It doesn’t change the fact that emergency numbers should be callable using a phone.

#8

Yes, we do not know. Hence I wonder, why you deem my statement not to be correct?

Well yes, that i why I phrased “at least”. But as we well know how limited Jolla’s resources are, I really do believe one should not expect more than this minimal requirements, until that changes.

It doesn’t change the fact that emergency numbers should be callable using a phone.

… which is what the GSMA specifies, thus arguing in a circle. How should a phone know a number is an emergency number, if not by exactly this GSMA specification?

P.S. / Edit:
Hence you may research how to query SIM/USIM or UE to check for the emergency numbers being provided by the latter three routes:
• Any emergency call number stored on a SIM/USIM (only possible if SIM/USIM present)
• 000, 08, 110, 999, 118 and 119 when a SIM/USIM is not present (these numbers are stored in the UE).
• Additional emergency numbers that may have been downloaded by the serving network when the SIM/USIM is present.

2 Likes
#9

The SIM is managed by the MNO.
So, do you use a swiss operator?
Do you use the SIM in the swiss network for longer times, and de-/register your smartphone from time to time in the network (so the operator’s SIM management can be triggered)?

PS: In the case of emergency remember to call 112 in the EU, and probably in Switzerland, Norway, Iceland too.

#10

What’s an MNO?

Of course, as I’m in Switzerland?

What do you mean by “de-/register your smartphone”? I turn it off sometimes, of course…

As I said, 112 works in Switzerland but we usually call the direct numbers here, because they connect you directly to the closest local office (e.g. 117 for police).

I don’t know and I honestly don’t really care. I think we may be forgetting here that no one is going to read GSMA specs while under high stress trying to call the emergency services ;).

#11

This contradicts to your last statement. So please specify the operator of the SIM and the home and roaming mobile network in your Bug Report correctly.

You may have seen in the GSMA NG.119 that there are standard emergency numbers specified and additional numbers stored on the SIM. The SIM is managed by the Mobile Network Operator (MNO), not by the User Equipment (UE) (= SFOS Smartphone).

In case you are roaming, the MNO would have to manage this additional numbers according to the particular visiting mobile network. Remote SIM management is probably not easy / impossible in roaming conditions. In case you are roaming your operator sends you text messages that include the local emergency numbers. These are the numbers that your operator is aware of. If this applies, please add this information to this Bug Report.

De-/registering means to register and authenticate in the visiting/home network. You may do this by switching you smartphone off and on or by switching to flight mode for some time.

Mobile networks are standardized by 3GPP/ETSI, GSMA extends this by specifcations that MNOs agree with. I don’t see a point to simplify discussion this way and associate reading specifications with particular emergency situations.
As I wrote before, for good reason the 112 is the standardized emergency number in the EU.

1 Like
#12

I take it you’ve never been mugged or been in a similar high stress situation? I can assure you, your first instinct isn’t to check what SIM you’re using, what network you’re in, or how to debug your phone.

I don’t know what network I was in, and I honestly don’t care. You seem to know a lot about mobile networks, while I don’t intend to become an expert in that field anytime soon. You also seem to know less about Switzerland and Swiss networks, which makes your confident assumptions quite speculative.

We are both the wrong people to continue this discussion, as we’re both not contributing anything constructive. All we can do is speculate.

I don’t see how arguing with you will help resolve this bug (and I will not continue), but it’s out of the question whether or not it’s a valid issue: emergency calls must work. Maybe it would have worked if I had used the phone app, or if I had had my Swiss SIM in my phone at that moment, maybe it wouldn’t. There’s no legal way for me to test that, and I hope I won’t have reason to call emergency services anytime soon again.

It’s a user experience issue and needs a fix in the GUI.

Also, citing the document you linked:

pg. 8: Emergency call shall be established by dialling specific emergency numbers identified
by the network (and not by the UE).

pg. 12: The emergency attach procedure described above is especially important in context of
roaming. Via the emergency registration, the emergency session shall be managed by the
visited network.

pg. 11: In case of roaming, the visited MME downloads the local Emergency list to visited UE.

As well as pg. 13ff. You suspect that 117 may be a “non UE detectable emergency call”. However, following the spec, it must still work.

I get the suspicion that it might be related to the missing VoLTE support. I know that I was in a 4G network but maybe SFOS uses the 3G procedure instead of the 4G procedure.

Switzerland isn’t part of the EU. 112 works, 117 must work too.

3 Likes
#13

In the more remote areas of St. Switzerland you might even want to have an Alphorn App to call that emergency aware dude on the next hill. :wink:

If some guys somewhere in between the relevant parts of Europe want their emergency numbers inside some phones specs they should maybe think of trying to change GSMA specs, if the phone is made according these specs.

Or just smile and call Yksi Yksi Kaksi.

There a a lot of regional 11n-numbers around in Europe and the might connect you to different local services.

#14

That is the misunderstanding.
But it will not help if you provide incomplete Bug Reports (Roaming or not? Emergency call with or without SIM? VoLTE on Xperia X - how?..) and do not answer the questions raised above.
If I may suggest I would like you to pay attention not to annoy other community members and not to switch the discussion constantly from technical to personal experiences.

1 Like
#15

Dude, relax, take a step back. Of course I’m talking about my specific personal experience, because that’s what my bug report is about.

Apparently in both directions.

All mentioned in the initial post. Roaming: yes, in Switzerland; SIM: yes, Norwegian; network: Swiss, in Switzerland. VoLTE on Xperia X: no, of course not, but maybe that’s why the 4G procedure described in the spec doesn’t work on SFOS.

What questions?

Also, I’d like you to explain how you arrive at the assumption that 117 is not an emergency number as per the spec. Neither of us nor the other people who chimed in can tell that for sure. So what we are doing here up to this point is just speculation.

So maybe the two of us can let this rest now because we’re both not going to fix this issue. I’m still hoping that someone more knowledgeable at Jolla can do something with the report.

#16

This was specified (reference to section 5.2 of the linked spec), and even quoted by olf just after.
It really is quite clear on that point.

Assumption: Sailfish OS does not read emergency numbers stored on SIM.

Edit:
Or perhaps that isn’t actually filled out properly (couldn’t find a AT command to read them)…
Google seems to maintain their own list: ecc/input/eccdata.txt - platform/packages/services/Telephony - Git at Google
(What an absolutely garbage solution to such an important problem).

2 Likes
#17

Can it be that there on this place in Switzerland simply was no 2G network, maybe because of the 2G/3G shutdown? In this case, no voice call would be possible technically, no matter if emergency or not, no matter if paid or free.
In 4G only zones, the old SFOS devices act as pure data devices and one can’t establish any phone call.

#18

Isn’t it possible to call emergency numbers when no sim is inserted, with android phones? I’ve never really tried, but it does seem to be the case. If so, it is obvious why a custom list is desirable.

#19

In Austria it’s communicated by authorities that emergency calls are possible without unlocking the device, without credit on prepaid SIM’s, even without any SIM, but only 112 emergency number and no other number.
In Austria there are also old emergency numbers like 122 for fire brigade, 133 for police and 144 for ambulance. These numbers still exist, but 112 can be dialled in every case.

1 Like
#20

Of course. I said nothing to the contrary.

Please explain to me how a custom list is preferable over a clear standard, operator-deployed numbers on SIM - or any other mechanism that does not rely on the OS.

3 Likes