Free access to voice mail while in Canada

[will13am]

Since a local area code phone number is assigned based on home province for voice mail, those of us with province wide calling plans will be charged long distance to check voice mail when leaving the home province.  I suggest perhaps using a single toll free number for voice mail so that checking voice mail is a free service for everyone from anywhere in Canada. 

[ute1978]

Haha, you are very quick @will13am. If the answer to my post a few minutes ago is YES, then I would like to upvote your idea.

My post:

http://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Discussions/Is-checking-the-voicemail-considered-long-...

[will13am]

Yeah, @ute1978, it is a follow up to your post.  I fully respect the Public Mobile model of being a budget carrier and I am mindful of that when making suggestions in the labs section.  I want Public Mobile to remain a budget carrier because I don't want to pay extra for frills.  I think this is a suggestion that comes with no cost and would be beneficial to all customers.  There is a high potential the change would be accretive to the bottom line given that people checking voice mail would likely initiate a return call.  For me, it is not a big deal as I have been using the workaround for years to convert province wide calling into free North America wide calling.

[WearySky]

Well, technically it would only be beneficial to customers on province-wide calling plans.  Customers on national calling plans already have free voicemail calling Canada-wide. 🙂

[will13am]

@WearySky, you are correct, it is beneficial to all with exception of accounts having Canada wide calling.  I guess there is a bit of selfishness on my part asking for an upgade that isn't 100% universally beneficial.  Free access to voice mail everywhere in the country is hardly a selling point for getting Canada wide calling.  I stand by my comment that this change has mutual benefits.  Customers with province wide calling would not likely get a long distance add on just to hear voice message when roaming.  However, if they were given free access to voice mails, that becomes an enabler for customers to pick up some long distance minutes to respond to those free voice messages.  

[theoc198]

@will13am The cost per minute for a 400 minute add on is $0.0375. Sure it would be cool to get free voicemail calling out of province but to be honest long distance is already cheap. There isn't really much of a reason for anyone to not have the long distance add-on added whenever leaving/calling out of province. 

At that per minute cost I use my plan as if it's Canada wide. I added the 400 minutes add-on last month as I went to Quebec (I'm from Ontario) and it will probably last me over a year. 

[Luddite]

@will13am Assuming you have data on your plan, use the Fongo app (fongo.com) to call your PM number when out of province. Press * once as your greeting plays and follow the prompts to pick up your messages.

[will13am]

@Luddite, I have google voice which converts all my long distance calls in North America to a local call.  Fongo works like a two soup cans with a long string.

[will13am]

@theoc198, I mentioned it for discussion purposes only.  I don't make too many calls and certainly I have ways to check voice mail without having to resort to long distance minutes.  In 3 months with Public Mobile, I am the only person that left myself a test voice mail. 

[dpeeri]

The voicemail access numbers should somehow be whitelisted to not use Long Distance minutes, excellent suggestion.