[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I will tell you how I handle the same
> problem here: Instead of simultaneous ring, my home phone is set
> up for 'transfer on busy/no answer' to my cell phone. If I do not
> answer my home phone (or am already on a conversation) then the
> incoming call forwards (after 3-4 rings) to my cellular phone, then
> the cellular phone 'transfers on busy/no answer' to voicemail.
Thanks for the response, Pat.
I had thought of that actually, and I suppose that this solution is the "lesser of two evils" (since at least people will not get the "wrong message"), but this solution has several disadvantages that I was hoping to avoid:
1) If my cell phone is off, then the caller hears the average 4 rings before voicemail kicks in. If my cell phone is ON (which is true most of the time), the caller is going to have to wait for 8 rings! This has confused people in the past who just give up before voicemail even comes on to take their message ("oh, I guess he's not home and doesn't have an answering machine"). I'm sure that the number of rings before my cell phone transfers to voicemail can be adjusted, but I don't want it ringing less than 4 times otherwise I don't have much time to answer the call if I want to.
2) If my cell phone provider's voicemail system takes the call, then my cool little "Message" indicator light on my Packet8 DTA won't tell me if I have a message or not because Packet8's system didn't take the message. I will also not have a "stutter" tone on my home phone anymore to alert me of the presence of a new message. Granted, if I don't use my cellular carrier's voicemail system, then my cell phone can't alert me about new messages either, but if the call is "simulring"-transferred to my phone, I at least have a record from the phone that someone called, I missed the call, and caller ID tells me who it was. At that point I can call Packet8 voicemail from my cell to see if I have any new messages.
3) Although it is a trivial charge, with the plan that I'm on with my cellular provider, voicemail is not "standard" unless I add it on for an extra fee. If I don't have to pay that fee, I don't want to.
4) Packet8's voicemail system has some cool features (such as the ability to e-mail myself a copy of a voicemail that I'd like to keep as a WAV file attachment) that I'm sure my cellular provider cannot replicate and which I don't wish to lose.
This gent claims that he managed to find a way to solve this problem without using cellular voicemail; I wonder how he did it? (hit "Complete Thread" and look at his last response):
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Thanks again,-- Nathan Anderson
"You can't appreciate Shakespeare until you've read him in the original Klingon." -- General Chang, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, as I see it, those are your two choices. But, bear in mind that after the first 3-4 rings (the ones going to your landline), there is a very brief pause in the ringing as the call is pulled away from your landline and switched over to your cellular. The regular people who call me at least understand that pause means the call is being shifted elsewhere. I don't think you can ever make everyone happy on this, short of spending a lot more money on a very sophisticated system. Understand, the above is relatively sophisticated for 'residential' service. And most people, in my experience, are willing to wait 7-8 rings for _something_ to kick in, although not much more than that. PAT]