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Three (3) in UK - No Visual Voicemail

I just thought folk might like to know that Three (or "3") in the UK does not support visual voicemail. I've just been googling and this fact seems to be well covered up!

Indeed it seems there is only one mobile network provider in the UK that provides visual voicemail in the UK, and thats O2.

Funny init? No matter how much you think you have researched contracts, deals, services etc, there is always something that catches you out and bites you. Can you imagine a mobile provider actually bringing a smile to your face? Yeah I know, its just a dream.

anyway, I'm just trying to spread the knowledge.

Mac Pro 2.66GHz 6GB RAM, Mac OS X (10.6.4), Ensemble, Liquid Mix, Logic Pro v9, Euphonix MC Control/mix

Posted on Sep 11, 2010 5:10 AM

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24 replies

Sep 11, 2010 7:21 PM in response to Malcolm Rayfield

{quote:title=Malcolm Rayfield wrote:}
Apple has not been hiding it
< http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1937 >



Ok, clever clogs, I shall take that wording back and rephrase...
The fact that 3(uk) does not offer visual voicemail is very difficult to find out.

or... "not obviously pointed out, even in small print"?

Look on the Apple website and it boasts about visual voicemail...
http://www.apple.com/uk/iphone/features/phone.html
...and note there is no "on certain carriers" type caveat.


As a long time iphone user I've become used to this great feature (on O2 Uk), I can remember Steve J getting all excited over it a few keynotes back. I just thought it was standard iphone stuff. Stupid me for not knowing the true situation I guess.

What a shame.

Interesting list though: Out of a total of 69 European carriers that you can use with iphone, 13 support visual voicemail... out of 69!
Ya live and learn.


Time to check out Hullomail I guess - cheers Keith.

Still, I'm loving my iphone 4 🙂

Sep 11, 2010 7:37 PM in response to Thomas O'Carroll

I'm a bit baffled by this thread. I've had O2 since the original iPhone and was always under the impression that only O2 offered visual voicemail here in the UK. I wasn't aware that networks like 3 had advertised it.

In my case O2 was the only option for my original iPhone and my 3G. With my 3GS I could have gone with Vodaphone but one of the reasons I stuck with O2 was hat Vodaphone didn't offer visual voicemail. I did also check other networks at the time and to my knowledge none of them did either.

I've bought my iPhone 4 sim free as I still have about 10 months of my contract on O2 to go. More then likely I will stay with O2 though partly because of visual voicemail and the free wi-fi access at BT Open Zone and The Cloud wi-fi hot spots.

Dec 6, 2010 10:47 AM in response to Thomas O'Carroll

Thomas O'Carroll wrote:
Indeed it seems there is only one mobile network provider in the UK that provides visual voicemail in the UK, and thats O2


I was aware of this and it's come to the point where it's going to bug me again.

I went with TESCO with my 3GS, more cause they were the only (and still the only?) UK provider to be offering a 12 month contract at a reasonable rate (as opposed to 18m or 24m more expensive deals). It only worked out pounds cheaper in some cases because you had to pony up over 300 notes for the phone, but all the same it was cheaper overall.

It didn't come with Visual Voicemail but uses the O2 network. This comes with two major annoyances:

(1) O2 offer VV but TESCO don't (as they're under cutting O2, or were at the time, I can see the rationale)

(2) Hullomail doesn't work either, because TESCO are not a recognised carrier in the UK with that App!!

Double Whammy!

So my contract is up early in the new year, only a further complication is that O2 has terrible 3G reception in my area. Strangely, around my part of the world (Hampshire UK, A3 corridor to London) O2's 3G coverage is dreadful which is really surprising for such a rich commuter belt. Anywhere outside the main centres of Guildford, Woking then London 3G is strictly dodgy and normally unavailable.

What's the point of having an iPhone if you can't connect??

Three (3) in comparison have great 3G coverage in this area, but alas, no VV!!

I've considered using O2 to get VV but then maybe purchasing something like Three (3)'s MiFi ( http://threestore.three.co.uk/broadband/) but then I'm paying more on top to get a decent 3G reception from 3 and VV from O2. Doesn't seem right to me although a MiFi would have other benefits to it that I could justify in the long run.

Along with others I share a frustration that the other providers do not support this service and I wonder why!? Why would you not support something that is advertised as a fundamental feature of the device!?

It would be interesting to know the true reasons for this, I expect them to be commercial.

It's like selling a 3D TV but then once you turn it on at home you find out nothing is on in 3D!

I'd hoped by the time my 12months with TESCO was up and I was looking to upgrade that VV would have progressed on UK network providers. Appears not at this point!

Here's hoping

Luke

Dec 6, 2010 10:51 AM in response to lukethegooner

lukethegooner wrote:
Strangely, around my part of the world (Hampshire UK, A3 corridor to London) O2's 3G coverage is dreadful which is really surprising for such a rich commuter belt. Anywhere outside the main centres of Guildford, Woking then London 3G is strictly dodgy and normally unavailable.


I'd be tempted to say rubbish, but I'm too polite.

I live quite close to you and apart from in the bottom of a few wooded areas, and a bizarre area on a stretch of rail track near the Mercedes place and Surbiton railway station, coverage is fine for me.

I travel all over the area also and rarely have difficulty getting a 3G signal.

Possibly the boys in green are swamping your particular area ?

Dec 6, 2010 11:22 AM in response to Graham Outterside

Graham Outterside wrote:
lukethegooner wrote:


I live quite close to you and apart from in the bottom of a few wooded areas, and a bizarre area on a stretch of rail track near the Mercedes place and Surbiton railway station, coverage is fine for me.

I travel all over the area also and rarely have difficulty getting a 3G signal.

Possibly the boys in green are swamping your particular area ?


Boys in green? What have the Irish rugby team got to do with it? 😉

It's certainly interesting ...

When I moved back from Oz in 2004 I got an O2 phone then (while it was still under BT's wings). I commuted up and down to London for 18months and even the telecon reception was intermittent to say the least. Once outside of Petersfield it drops up and down more times than a wh ** drawers. I quickly learned not to make calls from the train unless I wanted them interrupted.

I know a specific iPhone user in Petersfield town center who has purchased a Three (3) MiFi for this reason alone (and I believe he's a pucker O2 user, not a cheapo TESCO chav like me), if you'd like to tell him it's rubbish I'm sure he'd be interested in that 😉

I also work in Cardiff a lot, and outside of Cardiff and Barry centres the 3G reception from TESCO / O2 becomes erratic.

Just my experiences. I can sit in a pub with a mate in Horndean, Clanfield and just outside Petersfield, he gets brilliant Three (3) 3G reception, I get the little circle icon showing me it's made the lowest possible connection.

Strangely enough a friend was around the other day and she was complaining that she was having trouble connecting with her iPhone 4. Within my house her iPhone 4 showed NO connection whatsoever (O2) whereas I at least had minimum connectivity (with WiFi turned off), and she also complains that in East Meon, unless she's in range of her wireless network then she has no connectivity there either.

So you may think it's rubbish, but there's three factual user experiences that suggest you were being a tad harsh 😉

It's all relative, it maybe the case that we're just a few miles or metres out of range, but if you can't connect then it's a frustration all the same.

Luke

Dec 6, 2010 11:53 AM in response to Thomas O'Carroll

Why would you expect a network to tell you what it doesn't offer? No retailer or service provider in their right mind would do this and to expect anything else is naive. That doesn't constitute a cover up.

Very few handsets provide visual voicemail and I'd never heard of it until I got an Iphone, and I'm not exactly lacking of gadgetyy knowledge.

I am in Vodafone and the Hullomail app works perfectly fine for me.

Feb 21, 2011 7:41 PM in response to Thomas O'Carroll

Im gonna be honest, my deal with three was worth it for no visual voicemail, and although apple did boast about it, it doesn't really bother me. Three gave me the one plan with 2000 mins, 5000 texts, 5000 3 to 3 mins and all you can eat data for £25 a month with @70 upfront cost for the iphone 3gs, this was instore, not on their website, so visual voicemail or not, i shall be sticking with three for a deal like that.

Message was edited by: CrabMeat

Three (3) in UK - No Visual Voicemail

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