Vodafone Launch Visual Voicemail in Australia

<img class="alignright size-full wp-image-957" title="iphone12" src="http://www.mactalk.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/iphone12.jpg" alt="iphone12" width="220" height="300" />One of the most lamented things about the iPhone's release in Australia is that all our telcos didn't bother to implement visual voicemail. That cool feature that let us sort through our voicemail messages in a logical and easy fashion was simply ignored by the four telcos that offer the iPhone here. <strong><em>Until now.</em></strong> In 24 hours, Vodafone is lauching visual voicemail for their iPhone customers in Australia.

If you are a Vodafone iPhone customer, expect an SMS soon explaining what's going on. <a href="http://www.vodafone.com.au/personal/iphone/features/visualvoicemail/index.htm">Vodafone have a full list of info on their webpage.</a>

An internal memo was sent around Vodafone with the following info for staff (thanks to Pookster on the forums):

<strong>iPhone Visual Voicemail</strong>
Launching Tuesday May 26th, iPhone Visual Voicemail allows iPhone users only to view a visual list of their voicemail messages and listen to them in the order they choose, enabling customers to select the message most important to them.

iPhone Visual Voicemail downloads a copy of voicemails from the Voicemail system and stores it locally on the iPhone. It then keeps your iPhone and the Voicemail system synchronised. So whether you’re using Visual Voicemail or dialling 121 to access voicemails, they will always be in sync. There are transfers of data between your iPhone and the voicemail system in order to keep them synchronised at all times.

New and existing iPhone customers from May 26th will automatically gain access to Visual Voicemail from their iPhone provided they’ve got the latest iPhone software. Customers that do not have the latest software will need to download this software first through iTunes before Visual Voicemail can be utilised.

There will also be an iPhone Visual Voicemail campaign to kick off on May 26th &lt;campaign link to follow shortly&gt; to target all iPhone customers and advise of the service. Customers who have the latest software already will be auto provisioned first, customers who don’t yet have the latest software will be asked to follow some simple instructions on the vodafone.com.au web site in order to prepare their iPhone to be automatically provisioned with Visual Voicemail.

Should a customer be auto provisioned for Visual Voicemail and does not want the service they can revert back to either TXT Alert (1218) or Ring (1219) alerts for their voicemail service by using the short dial codes.

<strong><em>Costs for iPhone Visual Voicemail</em></strong>
Visual Voicemail needs to transfer data in order to keep synchronised with the Voicemail system. The data transferred will incur charges according to your current plan. However, the following is an example of potential data transfers based on sample user data for retrieval of your voicemail messages.

The maximum voicemail message size across the average user is approx. 50kb in size. The maximum number of voicemail messages is 20.*This means that to download a full mailbox with maximum size messages would transfer approximately 1MB of data.*NOTE: The above example is considered high usage of voice mail.

<em>What will the customer experience look like for customers yet to setup voicemail?</em>
For new iPhone customers who have not yet had VVM provisioned:

If customer taps the voicemail icon, 121 will be dialled.
This will then prompt the customer to initialise their voicemail box (personal greeting etc)
NB. Shortly after connection &amp; provided the customer has the latest software, VVM will be auto-provisioned. This will provide customer with VVM instead of having to dial 121 however the customer will still need to set up their own voicemail settings

<strong><em>FAQ’s </em></strong>
<em>Is iPhone Visual Voicemail available on Prepaid?</em>
Yes iPhone Visual Voicemail does work on Prepaid however there is no current iPhone Prepaid offer available.

<em>Does iPhone Visual Voicemail offer short dial codes?</em>
Yes, IVVM short dial codes are :
1213 – Cancel all voicemail diversions
1217 – Set up Visual Voicemail once provisioned with correct software
1218 – TXT alert
1219 – Ring alert

<em>Is iPhone Visual Voicemail available overseas?</em>
Yes, this service is available in countries that support data roaming. Please read the iPhone Visual Voicemail User Guide for further details.
Data roaming charges will apply according to customer’s current plan.
Customer’s should enable Voice and Data Roaming before going overseas in order to access their Visual Voicemails while abroad. Alternatively, they can change their Voicemail notification to TXT alert while overseas. NB: Ring alert is not available while overseas.