Comments on: SMS instead of voicemail

By: rhea123

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By: SMS instead of voicemail : Almost As Good As Chocolate

SMS instead of voicemail : Almost As Good As Chocolate — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:13:02 +0000

[...] SMS instead of voicemail 12 Jan 2010 I’m in India and I have my Indian SIM card in my phone. The thing I don’t have is voicemail. I investigated turning it on, but I got a long and convoluted set of options from the cell phone company that I couldn’t comprehend. So I just lived without it. [...]

By: Rational_Human

Rational_Human — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:56:55 +0000

The other nice thing to do with SMS is option to turn on a delivery receipt. Fear not privacy advocates, it's not a return receipt merely a confirmation that your SMS has been delivered to the recipient's phone.
And in India, with the originator paying, you don't get a ton of SPAM (which is really nice)

By: Nidhi Idnani

Nidhi Idnani — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 00:06:27 +0000

I believe Voicecloud converts voicemail into text and have them delivered as emails or text msgs. Also AT&T gives that option for about $10 over and above your monthly plan.

Enjoy your trip to India.

By: Shripriya

Shripriya — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 13:03:20 +0000

I use Airtel in India. Would love to turn it on, but the problem I described in the post will only really go away when everyone has it turned on. Why do the providers not turn it on by default?

By: psethi

psethi — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 00:49:24 +0000

Almost all providers have call waiting. which provider are you using? It could be a simple seting..

By: Shripriya

Shripriya — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 20:11:10 +0000

Fair point. For businesses to have voicemail makes sense – both as a form of establishing identity and because customers might want to reach them in numerous ways.

At the personal/individual level, it should be an option. Right now in the US I doubt I could turn off voicemail even if I wanted to in the sense that I don't know if carriers enable that (and I wouldn't want to until businesses and services start sending voicemails).

By: Nilu

Nilu — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 18:55:13 +0000

Voicemail has one important use — in that it gives you familiarity and confidence the first time. Consider you are making a nervous call to some doctor's office: the reassurance that they are in-fact in the doctor business and know all there is to know about your imagined illness is rather important. At least to me.

But once familiarity is established, I agree, a text message works better.

By: Shripriya

Shripriya — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 17:28:57 +0000

Other than to exhange phone numbers I don't understand missed calls.
But then again I'm not here for so long that I need to develop missed
call signals and codes.

Leave this week. Very short and crazy trip. Not eager to head back to
the freezing tundra.

By: anantha

anantha — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 17:24:09 +0000

Yup. Many don't have call waiting. The lack of voice-mail is the biggest adjustment I have had to make. Oh, that and this missed call business.

Btw, how long in Chennai?