So it appears that Airtel will take your money for a shiny new iPhone, but has absolutely zero support for it. God help you if you want to use a value-added service like (gasp) voicemail. I’ve been subscribed for a month and I only just got it working.
Here’s the thing: in Mumbai, the voicemail number is 555, except it isn’t, and most of Airtel doesn’t know this. After a number of complaints, a mysterious call from an Airtel employee told me to use 567 instead. This works. Still no idea how to set a custom greeting.
So you now know your voicemail number. Great! Except that your iPhone doesn’t. It still thinks it’s 555. You tell it otherwise by punching in a USSD code on your phone dialpad thus:
*5005*86*567# (press “call”)
Now your iPhone knows it’s own voicemail number. Brilliant. Almost.
Here’s the other thing: the iPhone doesn’t have settings for “call divert” like other phones. That is, there are no explicit settings for whether the call should go to voicemail if unanswered, busy or out of coverage. The iPhone manual is also vague about this. However, since voicemail is a network feature, it’s possible to set options using network USSD codes, and generic GSM ones at that! What I used:
Send to voicemail if unanswered: **61*567#
Send to voicemail if out of coverage: **62*567#
I didn’t use this one, but it’s useful because you can then send any call to voicemail by simply pressing the lock button twice (busy signal):
Send to voicemail if busy: **67*567#
There’s a whole bunch of options to these well, so I’ll just link to the sources:
http://www.iphonehacks.com/2007/09/voicemail-hack.html
http://www.theunwired.net/?item=how-to-diverting-voice-calls-by-using-ussd-codes
Andhra Pradesh Voice Mailbox is 91657
Thanks for tips.
Hey thanks. Your research is great! I shall try it on my iPhone. I had a serious problem when I upgraded to OS 3.1.2 the wifi just went dead and showed “no wifi” in grey letters. Unfortunately, the warranty period too had just expired by a week. I desperately fought it out and got a replacement free of cost, but now I am afraid to switch it on. Do let me know it you have heard of others with this problem. In the Apple iTunes there is the “forum” or “Discussions” where you will find about 10k such reports of failure only after the upgrade. Looking forward to your reply, Asis
Yes Asis, I have heard of these problems online. Moreso when the phones are jailbroken/unlocked with Purplera1n. I stuck with PwnageTool and had no problems.
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Hi I want to setup Voicemail on 3G. Now I know the Visual Voicemail is not available in India, but Just want to improvise. I tried the number 567 but doesnot work here in Haryana for me .Do you have any idea what the number for Haryana is or maybe tel me how to findout?
When I cal Airtel they just tel me to dial *117*1# to activate Voicemail. But when I do that iPhone gives me an error, Unknown Application.
Help me out please! Thanks!
No idea what the number for Haryana is. I found 567 by accident when someone from Airtel called me and told me about it. The call centre still doesn’t know of this.
Whats for Madhya Pradesh ?
No idea.
Thanks. It works perfectly!!
Even I get SMS notifications of it.
Hope that there might be some hack so that the carriers which don’t have visual voicemail can use it somehow.
Visual voicemail requires back-end support, so no ‘hack’ will enable it.
Hi, ian from Kerala. Using 3GS with 3.1.3 fw. Not jailbroken. I couldn’t set it up. When I dial it simply quits or says error performing request. Do u by any chance know the number for Kerala Airtel customers to access voice mail service. Damn customer people knows nothing. Plz help me friend
No clue what the number in your area is. Try going to a retail location and hassling them. It seems ridiculous that a service they provide and charge for has no proper support or resolution system.
PLZ TELL ME HOW TO ACTIVATE VOICE MAIL ON AIRTEL
USING IPHONE 3G . CALL SERVEL TIME TO CC BUT THE SAY DAIL *117*1# BUT ITS NOT WORKING NOT VALID APPERS ON THE SCREEN .IS ANYBODY USING VOICEMAIL ON IPHONE 3G ONE MORE THING PHONE JAILBROKEN.
If you’re in Mumbai, this is all I know. I called the helpline and had them activate voicemail. Beyond that, follow the instructions.
The 567 no is workin, but i can’t delete or the msg greetings,
is there any different no fr tat?
I haven’t figured that out either.
Alig,
I don’t know if you still need this information, but the voicemail number for NCR is 9810098200. It works for me on my iphone.
In order to enable your voicemail, just enter this code
*5005*86*9810098200# (press “call”)
hey guys am from tamil nadu, when i called up the customer care they aske me to send an sms AVMS to 202. I got the voice mail servie activated but i click voicemail icon on my iPhone it says the number am trying to reach doesnot exist. i have previously tried the *5005*86*561# before i activated my voicemail service..
pls help me out guys..
thank u !
I wanted to know Airtel voice mailbox no. Of Karnataka
Thank you so much. Your instruction has helped me a lot.
I have successfully activated my iPhone features and would love to share my tutorial.
Step 1: Call the customer care and ask them for the voice mail activation ussd code. ( For Delhi it’s *321*671# )
Step 2: They will provide you two with two voice mail inbox numbers.
Local and STD. These are to check your voice mail messages and organize your voice mail profile, like setting up the welcome message etc. (Local number is to check the messages from your town, std number is when you are out of station, you can use that number to check the messages). Once you activate this is only work, when your phone is switched off.
Step 3: We set the call divert. So that when you are unable to answer the call the call will go to voicemail.
Send to voicemail if unanswered:-
**61*YOUR STD VOICE MAIL INBOX NUMBER#
(for delhi it is 9810098200)
Send to voicemail if out of coverage:-
**62*YOUR STD VOICE MAIL INBOX NUMBER#
Send to voicemail if busy:-
**67*YOUR STD VOICE MAIL INBOX NUMBER#
thanks a lot buddy…!!
Do you know what it is for Bangalore?
Nope.
I am following the same Step 1 *321*671# for activation in Delhi on Iphone..
It ask me for confirmation by sending “1″ in response.. when I do the same I get an error message “please try after sometime”.. this error messge is coming from last couple of days….
You guys have any idea? or any resolution for that?
How to Deactivate Voice Mail Service ? ( Airtel Mumbai )
Call them.
9815098250 is for Punjab Airtel.
Thank you verymuch sir, m too very frustrated with iphone in india kind of deal, no wonder steve never launched it here in due time….
was used to using the iphone in us for 3 years, back here in India now, no help nothing, the customer care at airtel doesnt know what they get paid for…
how to deactivate this feature on iphone ???