topic Re: Voicemail symbol appearance in Plusnet Feedback

Voicemail symbol appearance

dcash29 — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 08:46:16 GMT

I have unlimited Broadband and to have the simple voice mail notification symbol appear on my phone is another £3.00 a month.
I don't want mobile messaging and all the bells and whistles that come with it just a symbol to say i have a message on my home phone which is free with other suppliers.
Only thing Plusnet has going for it at present is a UK call centre, although its a 45 minute wait there
Up to now WHICH have a lot to answer for.

Re: Voicemail symbol appearance

Oldjim — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 09:25:18 GMT

No it isn't
That is Voice Mail Extra
If you go to https://portal.plus.net/plustalk/index.php?page=wlr_add_call_features you will see this
I am not aware of any symbol on a landline phone - I thought that the standard was an intermittent dial tone

Re: Voicemail symbol appearance

PeeGee — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 14:15:06 GMT

Quote from: Oldjim
I am not aware of any symbol on a landline phone - I thought that the standard was an intermittent dial tone

This Panasonic has the feature (according to the manual).

Re: Voicemail symbol appearance

Oldjim — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 14:24:17 GMT

It doesn't as far as I can tell
The manual refers in this case to one incorporating its own answering machine which is completely different

Re: Voicemail symbol appearance

picbits — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 14:45:38 GMT

I wasn't even offered 1571 as a free basic option with BT on my last package although I did get "free" caller ID however the line rental was more than I was paying with PN so it wasn't really "free" in the grand scheme of things !

Re: Voicemail symbol appearance

PeeGee — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 19:26:31 GMT

@Oldjim
Of the four manuals, two cover the 671x (phone) and two both the 671x and the 672x (answer-phone). All four refer to the icon and those with the answer machine also specify that the internal system has to be turned off for 1571 to be used (not strictly true, as it will be used if the line is in use ).

Re: Voicemail symbol appearance

picbits — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 19:55:04 GMT

So the same as my Gigaset DECT answerphone.
If the Gigaset answer machine is turned on then it will answer the phone and record the messages (I get an icon appear when there is a message and a flashing light)
If the Gigaset is off then my 1571 answers unanswered calls but the Gigaset doesn't say there is a waiting message (although it lets me know there is a missed call).
Unless the 1571 service sends some kind of extra data via the CLID or similar then I can't see how it informs the phone at the other end that there is a message waiting.
I found this statement on another forum which may shed some light as to how the phone knows there is a message - I don't know how accurate the information is though without doing further research :

Quote
The message indicator phone works by picking up the line every 30 mins and checking if there is a broken dial tone (indicating a message waiting on BT and some VM switches/exchanges)

Re: Voicemail symbol appearance

dcash29 — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 20:21:28 GMT

Quote
No it isn't
That is Voice Mail Extra
If you go to https://portal.plus.net/p...age=wlr_add_call_features you will see this

Yes I'm aware, that's why I wrote £3 a month and mobile alerts

Quote
I am not aware of any symbol on a landline phone - I thought that the standard was an intermittent dial tone

You really need to do your homework before commenting

Re: Voicemail symbol appearance

PeeGee — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 20:30:05 GMT

@picbits
That quote is a good description of the Decor 1200 operation (it also has a blue flashing "1571" button as an indicator), and caused me an ADSL SNRM/re-sync problem a while back when there was a line fault

Re: Voicemail symbol appearance

pwatson — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 20:51:17 GMT

Quote from: dcash29
Quote
No it isn't
That is Voice Mail Extra
If you go to https://portal.plus.net/p...age=wlr_add_call_features you will see this

Yes I'm aware, that's why I wrote £3 a month and mobile alerts
Quote
I am not aware of any symbol on a landline phone - I thought that the standard was an intermittent dial tone

You really need to do your homework before commenting

A response that you think is going to encourage others to help you?
What phone have you got and what makes you think that subscribing to Voicemail Extra will help you with the indicator? If the phone picks up the line occasionally to sense broken dial tone you could try a second ADSL filter in series and see if that helps? Assuming you have ADSL of course!

Re: Voicemail symbol appearance

picbits — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 20:57:59 GMT

As above, what telephone do you have that supports the broken tone signalling ?
I doubt an extra filter will do much good as the audio signal of a broken tone is very easy to detect but obviously you need to have a phone which is compatible.
On another note, the broken tone dialling signal used to confuse some alarm systems and emergency pendant type call systems which expected a solid dialtone before they would call out.

Re: Voicemail symbol appearance

pwatson — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 21:03:28 GMT

Quote from: picbits
I doubt an extra filter will do much good

Suggested as an experiment because of this

Re: Voicemail symbol appearance

picbits — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 21:12:03 GMT

Blimey - well spotted.
Maybe it just senses a signal on the line rather than discriminates on a specific frequency range with the extra DSL filter blocking that extra bit of higher frequency noise.

Re: Voicemail symbol appearance

Gel — Mon, 06 Jan 2014 13:44:54 GMT

Quote from: picbits
I wasn't even offered 1571 as a free basic option with BT on my last package although I did get "free" caller ID however the line rental was more than I was paying with PN so it wasn't really "free" in the grand scheme of things !

1571 now chargeable, as is CLID with BT.
Cancelled mine today, as I have answering machines, which'll now be used.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2534380/BT-fire-new-free-1571-messages-Firm-accused-immoral-rises-customers-charged-service-time.html

Re: Voicemail symbol appearance

Mayfly — Mon, 06 Jan 2014 15:16:45 GMT

BT have to find ways of covering the cost of BT Sport