I can relate in the sense that I usually dislike it when people leave me messages, especially when it's just a freind calling and leaves a message that says "call me back". Well, if I know who are isn't it already common courtesy to call back when i know you've called?
Unfortunately, I also believe that it is unacceptable for someone is this day and age not have voicemail on his or her cell phone. If you at all use it for conducting any type of business, whether its dealings with a store you've purchased from, your bank trying to contact you, or for anything even remotely work related, it's pretty much expected that people should be able to leave you a voice message. Not having voicemail would lead to situations where either one of 2 things often happens. The person who was calling you will call you back multiple times in an attempt to reach you, or the person won't bother trying again, which would be very bad in the the case of a job search.
As for people calling you being charged because your voicemail answers, people have been dealing with that for years, even if the call isn't long distance. Many people do not have unlimited voice minutes and when your voicemail picks up, they automatically get billed for a full minute or have a minute used up out of the daytime minute bucket. Because of that, people have become good at hanging up before vociemail picks up. This can often be judged by the number or rings or the amount of time the call is taking to connect. I know with an overseas calls, that might be more difficult to do, but it surelly isn't impossible.
