Possible to disable voicemail?

[chobo2]

Hi

I bought the config file and ata adapter from freephoneline.ca and have since hooked it up to my real phone. My real phone has an answering machine and I noticed that the freephoneline voicemail highjacks the voicemail so my phone never records the message.

How do I get around this so the phones answering machine will get the message?

[FONGO_mike]

Hi chobo2,

at this point we are unable to completely disable voicemail on the service. What you will want to do is either use the voicemail built into the service, or, log into your account and set your voicemail to the maximum number of rings while setting your answering machine to one or two rings less to make sure it picks up before the voicemail does.

[TheHardy]

Mike's suggestion to set the FPL VM setting high and your answering machine low is the best one; many people have the same issue.

What Mike does not mention, is that the reason that Fongo does not allow you to disable it's VM altogether is that they make some of their revenue to pay for this service from TERMINATION charges, so they want each call to TERMINATE -- even if it is on their VM platform.

[Bloodsong]

^^ As Hardy said, it is important that the terminations occur on our CLEC (the Freephoneline/Fongo/Fibernetics side of things). As not everyone has an answering machine (and Fongo can't see who does), and if you're in a call an answering machine cannot pick-up the call for you, Fongo cannot ensure their continuation as a free-service if they allowed just anyone to completely disable their voicemail.

And we all very much want Fongo to remain a progressive phone service with lofty ideals of the future of communication.