iOS7 upgrade turns on cellular voicemail shock

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What to do if this happens to you on T-Mobile UK

It started off as a simple and rather innocuous request for advice. A regular GoMo News reader found that not only was voicemail suddenly switched on for his cellular service but even worse, most calls were then going straight to voicemail. To rectify the problem, he was calling into the mobile network operator’s [MNO's] voicemail system, but nowhere from the menu options he could hear was there the ability to switch voicemail off again. The MNO in question was T-Mobile UK. What made us sit up and take note about this was the fact that the unwanted change was triggered by an upgrade to Apple’s latest OS (iOS7) offering. Details of how he eventually escaped are provided below.

In the UK, one of the reasons why voicemail causes such problems for consumers is that by default it is turned on. The reason why is simple.

UK MNOs receive no revenue if a incoming call goes unanswered. Whereas if the call goes to voicemail, then they are able to charge the termination fee to their own networks.

So, by default, voicemail is switched on for UK consumers. This practice basically led to all of the UK’s ‘phone hacking’ scandals which are all voicemail related.

But we digress. A swift search of the Net revealed the two solutions we had expected. Firstly, a direct command and secondly, the correct sequence for turning voicemail off via the dial-in menus.

The direct command was most impressive given that it worked immediately. On T-Mobile UK, all you have to do is key in “#004#” and then press the dial button.

That should ensure that you receive a message informing you that voicemail is no longer active.

If you use the voice activated menus, then you need to call into the voicemail system and listen carefully to the options regarding ‘roaming’. In effect, pressing 3 twice should get you there.

What puzzles us here at GoMo Towers is why a simple OS upgrade affected such an important parameter as voicemail.

We can only assume that some kind of default settings were changed during the iOS7 upgrade. If this helps subscribers on other networks – such as T-Mobile USA, we will be glad.

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