Voicemail Access

I have had problems checking voicemail messages from a landline when
traveling overseas and not wanting to use the my cellphone for this. Calling
Cingular today, I was informed that:
* while in the U.S. I can call my cell phone from a landline phone (or
other phone) and press # when I hear the greeting, after entering my PIN I
will be able to retrieve my voicemail messages. Further, this should work
regardless of whether my cellphone is on or off, whether it has a signal or
not.
* overseas, this may or may not work depending on the cellular network
in the country where I travel. My only recourse is to use my cellphone (thus
incurring expensive charges.)

Can anyone shed any light on this seeming disconnect? Why would the overseas
cellular network matter even when it is not being used?

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On 2006-09-04, Elmer Fudd <[email protected]> wrote:
> I have had problems checking voicemail messages from a landline when
> traveling overseas and not wanting to use the my cellphone for this. Calling
> Cingular today, I was informed that:
> * while in the U.S. I can call my cell phone from a landline phone (or
> other phone) and press # when I hear the greeting, after entering my PIN I
> will be able to retrieve my voicemail messages. Further, this should work
> regardless of whether my cellphone is on or off, whether it has a signal or
> not.
> * overseas, this may or may not work depending on the cellular network
> in the country where I travel. My only recourse is to use my cellphone (thus
> incurring expensive charges.)
>
> Can anyone shed any light on this seeming disconnect? Why would the overseas
> cellular network matter even when it is not being used?

Sometimes, when you are roaming overseas, if your phone rings and you
don't answer, the caller is not forwarded to your voice mail. The
caller instead gets a message from the local (roaming) provider that
you aren't available, or something. If this is the case, if you call
your mobile from a landline and just ignore the incoming call, you
won't get to your voice mail.

If this happens then phoning from the cell phone will get you to
voice mail (I don't know whether this is because calls to your handset
do go to voice mail when the handset is busy rather than just unanswered,
or because calls to yourself are handled differently), but what has also
always worked for me is to turn the cell phone off and wait for a bit
before calling from the landline. Once your home provider is informed
you are no longer connected to the roaming network calls to you will
be immediately routed to your voice mail, just like they are at home
when the phone is off.

So I guess the answer to your last question is that the overseas mobile
network matters as long as your handset is connected to it, but won't matter
if your handset isn't connected to it (and has been off long enough
for your home provider to find out).

Dennis Ferguson