Cannot access Nortel Voicemail System

Your love fest for Nortel aside, here are the facts that many of us iPhone users have shared and are experiencing:

iPhone Gen1 accessing Nortel systems dialling **, no issue.

Upgrade to iPhone 3g, turn off 3g and dial ** for a Nortel system and get the dreaded, "exiting the system."

Did the Nortel set up change? No
Did the set up to access change? Yes
Did the Gen 1 iPhone work? Yes
Does the 3g iPhone work? no

Deductive reasoning? The only thing that chaned was the iPhone going from Gen 1 to 3g. Logic dictates its an apple issue. Perhaps the same issue as your Razor, but no other phone, blackberry, sanyo, samsung, treo, report this issue.

Hi,
Found a workaround to the ** issue. Use your old cell phone, or buy a disposable one for $9.99 from RadioShack, put the speaker of the old cell phone directly up to the microphone on the bottom of the iPhone 3G (do NOT put the iPhone on speakerphone), when the prompt comes up, press ** on the your old cell phone. That will get you into the system, then use the iPhone to dial the rest of the numbers. Let me know if that works for you guys?

This leads me to beleive that pressing ** does not transmit any electronic signal it merely plays a split second audio file, and that on the iPhone 3G that sound is "off" key. Thoughts?

I don't understand. Are you saying that you have to do this everytime you want to access your voicemail? If so, I don't need to have the iPhone that badly!

I have same issue on iphone 3G when pressing ** to access my company land line voice mail... Everyone who is having the issue needs to call Apple iPhone tech support and ask for level 2 tech support. Refer the tech to this thread, plus another thread that I posted several weeks ago.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1612132

It is DEFINITELY an IPhone 3G issue... The more people who call Apple, the quicker the fix...

I have 2 other AT&T 3G Phones (HTC8525, HTC TILT) and both have this issue. Turning off 3g only seems to work intermittently for our iPhone users as well.

I bought my iphone 2 days ago - I had been a blackberry user for years, I thought with the upgrades Apple did this would be a good replacement. Boy was I wrong! I am a salesman and I cannot get to my voicemail (same problem as everyone else **), the battery life ***** and it's harder to type than on the blackberry.
If Apple doesnt get a fix on the voicemail issue soon this is going back to AT&T, I am very disappointed

Just to continue to chime in on this issue, I too am having the same problem. I've followed every suggestion posted (thanks everyone) to no avail. Can't get close to my work e-mail. I'm actually one of those folks that didn't buy the first iteration of the iPhone to give Apple a chance to work out all the bugs. As a 20 year mac user, I dread having to go back to Motorola.

Let's hope this is taken care of soon.

ummm... wrong.

sorry, but we've had the same nortel system for well over 10 years.
during that time i have used dozens of mobile phones to access the voicemail system.
plus countless land lines
even a few VOIP packages.

they ALL worked fine.
in fact, in response to the RAZR comment, i just used my wife's RAZR to check my voicemail after getting completely fed up with trying on the iphone.

blame the variable, not the constant.
i'm sure apple will fix this in a software update, but in the meantime we need to be the squeaky wheels to let them know it's actually a problem

I have the same problem - My workaround solution is to set up Off-Premise message notification in the nortel system so the nortel system will call my cell phone when I have received a new message. When the nortel system calls your cell phone, you only have to enter your password to retrieve your messages and not the cursed **. To set up off premise message notification - feature 981, enter mailbox and password and #, 8, 6, 1, and follow the menu after that. you can set the time parameters of when the system will call you, what line it will dial out on , etc.

That's very helpful -- thanks. I'll give it a try!

The workaround is a great idea. I've not been able to get this to work, but am working with my system administrator to try to get this to work. Thanks.

By chance try hitting 4 then * in lieu of **. I tried this by chance and it has worked everytime.

I tried the 4 * method. It worked...ONCE! Oh please APPLE, please fix this. I don't want to go back to my blackberry!

Quick clarification - is this 4* method with 3G enabled or is this back to Edge? If it is the former, no luck for me. 😟

Thanks for the hint. I tried the 4 then * approach with both the 3G network on and off. No go.

Fortunately, I have an administrative assistant that is taking messages the old fashioned way. Verizon has made a really compelling argument to go back, but I'm really resisting. I hope we find a work around soon, Pat