foliage

[JohnW2]

So how does it know which country you are in?

With a landline,the answer to that is obvious.

However, I see your point about a mobile in the UK which connected to a tower in France. I believe that the behaviour plugwash described is 'reciprocal', so I think that a call to '999', as well as 112 (and maybe 911 etc.) received via a tower which implied that the phone was in France would get connected to the French emergency services (not a recorded message in French), and I would imagine it is probable that the operator who answered (and/or one of their colleagues) would have a reasonable command of English!

 

[morqthana]

"Bonjour, j'écoute."
.
.
"Désolé, monsieur, mais...

 

[JohnW2]

"Bonjour, j'écoute." ... "Désolé, monsieur, mais...

..... I would imagine it is probable that the operator who answered (and/or one of their colleagues) would have a reasonable command of English!

 

[morqthana]

They might.

Whether they would exercise it or not is a matter for Gallic discretion.

 

[JohnW2]

They might. Whether they would exercise it or not is a matter for Gallic discretion.

I seriously doubt that emergency services operators (even Gallic ones!) would fail to do everything necessary to establish effective voice communication with the caller, even if he/she did not understand their native language