About home phone voicemail
Voicemail answers and records calls when you're away from the phone or busy on another call. All Digital Home Phone customers have Voicemail.
Voicemail includes:
- having a personal greeting for callers to hear, changing it as often as you like
- storing up to 20 messages for Voicemail Essential and up to 30 for Premium Voicemail
- access your messages when you're away from home
Changing the number of rings before voicemail picks up
- dial 1571 to access your voicemail.
- select Option 3 for Settings and Features.
- select Option 2 to set how many times your phone rings
Recording a personal greeting for your Voicemail
You can set up a new personalised voicemail greeting for your home phone. Callers will hear the same greeting regardless of whether the line is busy or unanswered.
To set up your greeting:
- dial 1571 from your home phone
- select Option 2 from the main menu to set a personal greeting
- select Option 1 to record a personal greeting or Option 2 to choose the standard greeting
- If you choose to record a personal greeting you'll be able to record your message after the tone. Once you have finished recording, press hash (#) to finish and save your greeting.
- Confirm or re-record your greeting. To cancel and return to the greeting menu press star (*)
There are not multiple personalised greetings. Callers will hear the same greeting you have set up, regardless of whether the line is busy or unanswered.
Need to know
Premium Voicemail will take a message if you are already on the phone and ring you shortly after you've hung up to tell you that you have a message. This service is called Voicemail Message Alerts.
Setting up a Voicemail PIN
You need a Voicemail personal identification number (PIN) to be set up to link a mobile number to access your messages remotely.
To set up a PIN:
- dial 1571 from your home phone.
- select Option 3 from the main menu, for settings and features.
- select Option 3 again to reset/setup the PIN. You can choose any PIN between 4-10 digits.
Listening to your messages
When you have a new message, you will hear an interrupted dial tone on the phone line. Dial 1571 to hear it.
To access saved messages, dial 1571 to reach your voicemail and select Option 1 from the main menu.
If you're using a Digital Home Phone device, the screen will show you how many messages you have. Press the voicemail button to listen to them.
If you have Premium Voicemail you'll receive a call to notify you of any new messages.
The maximum length for a single message is 2 minutes. For Premium Voicemail it's 5 minutes.
When your voicemail mailbox is full
Callers will hear the message "Sorry, this mailbox is full, it cannot accept any more messages." When you dial 1571, you'll hear: "Welcome to voicemail. Voicemail is completely full. Please delete any unwanted messages".
Delete old and unwanted messages to create mailbox space. When you delete a message, there's no way of retrieving it.
About Voicemail Message Alert
If you miss a call because you're on the phone, Voicemail will take a message and ring you shortly after you've hung up and tell you that you have a message. This won’t happen for Voicemail Essential.
Need to know
Voicemail Essential stores new messages for 60 days. If you have Premium Voicemail you'll have access to unopened messages for 6 months.
You can save a message you've listened to for 20 days with Voicemail Essential and 30 days with Premium Voicemail.
Any new messages that have not been listened to are stored for 60 days for Voicemail Essential; and for Premium Voicemail, they’re stored for 6 months.
Listening to your messages when away from home
You need your Voicemail PIN to access your Voicemails when out and about. To do this:
- dial your home number
- wait for your voicemail to answer
- press the star (*) key on your device
- enter your Voicemail PIN to access your messages
Using Voicemail with other calling features and services
Alarm systems working with Voicemail
Some social alarm and burglar alarm equipment may not be compatible with Voicemail. Please check with your alarm supplier.
BT 1471
BT 1471 tells you the last number that called you, and will update in the normal way if:
- Voicemail picks up the call when there is no answer.
- If you have Call Waiting active and are engaged on a call but choose not to take the second call, Voicemail will answer the call.
However, please note that 1471 won't update with the last number called, if the call goes to your Voicemail when the line is busy.
Call Diversion
When you have both Call Diversion and Voicemail and choose to activate Call Diversion, you will not hear the interrupted dial tone indicating the diversion is active. You'll only hear a change in dial tone when there is a new message on Voicemail.
Call Protect
Voicemail includes Call Protect, a service that sends nuisance and unwanted calls to junk voicemail. It helps stop the worst offending nuisance calls and provides you with the control to stop other unwanted calls. It’s simple and easy to manage.
Read this page for Information on Call Protect and how to manage it.
By having Call Protect with Voicemail, you'll receive two extra features that work alongside your personal voicemail service. And don’t worry; your Voicemail service will continue working as normal. Here’s what you’ll get:
- VIP Make sure your important calls are never sent to your junk voicemail
- Do Not Disturb If you don’t want to be disturbed by phone calls at certain times of the day
Call Reminder
If you receive a call and choose not to answer it. It will not divert to your Voicemail if you have Call Reminder set up.
Call Waiting
If you have Voicemail and are on a call when a new incoming call arrives, an intrusion tone will advise you that a new call is waiting. The caller will hear the Call Waiting announcement, and if you decide not to take the new call, after 21 seconds, it will be diverted to Voicemail.