Voicemail doesn't work when out of service area

Which phone do you have?

Your phone may be compatible with Wi-Fi Calling. Click the link below to see if your phone is in the list of compatible devices.  Wi-Fi Calling allows select devices to make/receive calls when there is little or no cellular service. Wi-Fi Calling must be activated while under cellular coverage. In order for Wi-Fi Calling to work, VoLTE must be provisioned/added to your account.

Wi-Fi Calling | Help

Koodo’s VoLTE add-on may already be added to your account. To check, log in to your Self Serve account. Tap or click on the Self Serve tab/dropdown menu and select Mobile services. Click or tap My add-ons and verify that the VoLTE add-on is visible.

If the add-on is not visible, try enabling Wi-Fi Calling. This action sometimes adds the VoLTE add-on automatically. If the add-on is still not visible in Self Serve, we can flag a rep to add this to your account.

Other options: downloading the Fongo Mobile app to your phone might be worth looking into. The app is available for iOS and Android devices and works over Wi-Fi (or mobile data). You will get a free local phone number and the service includes visual voicemail among other features. I’ve been using this service as a backup for several years without issue.

Fongo Mobile

If the phone didn't send call to voicemail when you weren't reachable, your phone might be setup not to “forward call” to voicemail when “unreachable"

Which phone were you using, i recommend you check the call forward setting to see if the funtion “forward when unreachable” was enabled or set to something peculiar.

Thanks very much for both your answers.  The phone is a Samsung Galaxy A12, which is not on the list to be compatible with WiFi Calling.  The other issue is that we live off-grid and so our modem and router are off except for when we’re using them to conserve power.  So, most of the time, we don’t have WiFi.  One thing I did not mention is that if I turn the phone off, voicemail works fine.  However, we keep the phone on so we can communicate by text, and that weak connection we have seems to screw up voicemail.  The only fix that the Bell technicians could come up with was to automatically send everything to voicemail, whihc included calls when we were in a cell service area.  I will check out Fongo Mobile.  Also, I will look at the “forward when unreachable” setting when I go into a cell service area again--at home, I just get a network error when I try to check that setting from home.  Thanks again for your responses.

I recommend you tried to reset network settings when you had Koodo network signal. I think there was some wrong setting with the call forward or voicemail center in the phone.

Thanks for your comments again.  I was in an area of cell phone service yesterday and I checked the voicemail settings.  All are set correctly to forward calls to voicemail when I am unreachable and when our line is busy.  Voicemail works fine when I am in an area of phone service or if our phone is turned off at home.  It will not work when we are home (where cell service is marginal) with the phone turned on, which is the usual case because we can communicate by text.  I have tried calling our phone from work and just get silence--I can’t leave a message.  This is when I need it to work because we cannot get voice calls at home.  As I mentioned, I worked on this with Bell technicians a couple of years ago and the only solution they could find was to have all calls go immediately to voicemail.  So, if there’s a way to do this, I can use the saem work-around now.  Thanks again for your time with this.

The *61*[phone number]*11*[number of seconds to vm]# method forwards calls to a voicemail access number when ‘calls are not answered.’ This is where you would input the delay for the number of seconds before the voicemail service picks up, as shown below.

*61*+15875804001*11*[number of seconds to voicemail]#

If your area code is 867, the voicemail access number is +1 587-580-4001. On iPhone, the +1 prefix is not needed as the system automatically adds this. On Android devices, the +1 prefix may need to be added.

*62*[phone number]# is used when ‘out of reach.’ Since seconds to voicemail cannot be added to this string, calls should go directly to voicemail.

*62*+15875804001#

*67*[phone number]# is used when the ‘line is busy’ and forwards the call to the voicemail access number.

*67*+15875804001#

The *XX* codes activate conditional forwarding (e.g. *61*, *62*, *67*).

The ##XX# codes cancel and deregister the above (e.g. ##61#, ##62#, ##67#).

To check status: *#61#, *#62#, *#67#.

I think the issue stems from the lack of cellular service in your area. While your phone may be able to receive text messages, it sounds like there is not enough signal for calls to get pushed through. Factoring in off-grid living, and keeping power consumption low, a low-power cellular booster may help. I’m not sure how rugged the terrain is where you are, you may have to get creative with antenna placement.

Canadian cell tower maps may prove useful for locating cell towers that are closest to you when setting up the booster’s directional antenna and determining line-of-sight to the nearest cell tower.

Canadian Cell Towers Map or Scadacore Canadian Cell Tower Map - the latter is best viewed on a laptop or tablet.

The cellular booster below appears to run off of household current or a 12-volt power source according to an answer from the seller.

Cellular Signal Booster

Thanks very much.  I will be in a service area today and I’ll try the code for call forwarding.  Very handy to have a list of those codes.  Yes, in the longer run, I think a cell booster would be good--a project for when it’s not so cold and dark.  Thanks again.

My problem with voicemail persists.  I will summarise the situation.  I live in an off-grid home in a fairly remote part of the Yukon Territory with marginal cell service--at home, we can get texts but not voice calls.  I recently switched from Bell to Koodo and have been trying to set up voicemail.

Voicemail works fine if we have the phone in a cell service area--it picks up after 15 seconds as I specified.  It also works fine if the phone is turned off, whether at home or in a service area.  It does not work, however, in the situation we need it most--at home when we have the phone turned on, which is normally the case so we can communicate by text.  Our weak connection then seems to confuse and diable voicemail.

Yesterday I was in a service area and I again set up call forarding to email using the MMI codes above (*61*, *62*, *67*),  All seemed to work fine and I got “Activation was successful” messages.  So, voicemail should pick up after the 15 seconds I specified, when I am not reachable, and when the line is busy.  As I said, I tested this yesterday and all works fine if the phone is in a service area or is off. 

However, when my phone is on and at home, and I dial its number from another phone in the sevice area (the same one as I tested it with when our phone was in the service area, using the same contact list), I get 5-10 seconds of silence, two rings, and then a “Your call cannot be completed as dialed. . . “ error.

When I was with Bell, we had the same issue but their technicians set it up so that any calls coming into the phone would go directly to voicemail.  Not ideal when we were in a service area but it worked and it was better than no voicemail, which is what I have now.  So, I was hoping I could set this up to go directly to voicemail again.  I know its doable because Bell had it set up that way.  The only other thing I see I can try is to set the voicemail delay to the minimum 5 seconds allowed with the *61* code and see if I can avoid the error messages that way.  I’ll try that the next time I’m in a service area.

Any other suggestions are welcome.  I know a solution to improve our service like a cell booster is what we need eventually but setting that up in the middle of our cold dark season is not ideal and I need a shorter term solution right now.  Thanks a lot for your input to date.

Let me flag a rep to look into this. The rep may be able to provide a solution or suggest other options.

Thanks very much.

Sorry for the late reply here, @MarkO'D 

We have checked the options and, according to our tech support team, you should still be able to receive voicemails under those circumstances, however, we can suggest the Call Forwarding - Unconditional, that would redirect all calls to the Voicemail: to activate it, dial *21* +15875804001# (https://www.koodomobile.com/en/help/call-forwarding)

This should send all calls to your voicemail and when you are in an area with good coverage, you can disable the call forwarding unconditional using #21#.

I hope this will help you getting the calls to your voicemail when the coverage is not good enough.

Thanks very much.  I will try this code the next time I am in a service area.

Thanks to everyone for your help.  Using the code for Call Forwarding-Unconditional has turned out to be the only solution that works for us right now.  When we get calls, they now go to voicemail when we’re at home.  When we’re in a service area, we can disable the call forwarding.  Thanks again.