The Transport for London, the agency responsible for London’s transport system, is debunking an e-mail that is circulating claiming mobile phones will link up with satellites if a mobile phone user has no wireless signal and dials 112.

According to Snopes.com, a Web site that collects information on urban legends, the text of the e-mail being spammed out to Londoners in the wake of recent terrorist bombings in the London Underground states, “If you travel to work on the tube, please note the following information: If your mobile phone has no signal (so even if you were in a tunnel) if you dial 112 it diverts to a satellite signal and puts you through to the 999 call centre. All phone companies have signed up. As it is a satellite service it also gives them a trace to you if you don’t know where you are.” 999 is the emergency telephone number similar to 911 in the United States.

Transport for London issued a press release stating the claims that dialing 112 when you have no signal on your mobile phone “is completely untrue.”

“Even with a satellite mobile phone (which very few people have), you would need to have a clear line-of-sight to the satellite. You would have to be outside, not in a building or a tube tunnel.”