When I was on Orange or T-Mobile, before I went on holiday outside the UK I would set-up an unconditional call divert to my voicemail. This meant that all calls to my mobile would always go straight to my voicemail, and thus I'd AVOID getting billed for international (roaming) calls when someone left a message (because the call never left the UK). (Of course listening to voicemails would still incur a roaming charge, but it at least people would hear a message saying I was on holiday.)

I've now switched to EE, but EE's website is ambiguous as to whether this will work with them. They advise turning voicemail off before leaving the UK... but I thought maybe that was just to avoid confusing people. And indeed I found a couple of pages on their website which do actually seem to say unconditional call diverts to voicemail won't incur roaming (international) charges...

... However, having spoken at length to EE support people twice, as well as someone on their hard-to-reach technical side, they were all adamant that I *would* be charged international (roaming) rates when someone left a voicemail. More amazingly they said:

Unconditional diverts to a UK number will NOT charge me roaming rates while I am abroad... UNLESS the divert is to my voicemail, in which case they WILL charge international (roaming) rates!!!


I'd really appreciate if someone with recent experience could tell me whether or not they really charge you extra for unconditional diverts to voicemail while you are abroad (if you set it up before you leave the UK). Especially for any country outside the EU.

Assuming they do charge roaming rates, what is the cheapest option if I just want someone to hear a message saying I'm on holiday? Currently I'm thinking of getting a (UK) Skype Number for 1 month, diverting all my mobile calls to that UK number, and then using Skype's Voice Messaging (aka voicemail) service...

In the EU definitely no charge for conditional or unconditional diverts to voicemail. Outside the EU unconditional diverts definitely no charge as the divert would be actioned by EE's HLR and not even make it abroad. I have no EE experience of conditional diverts outside the EU, but suspect they would be chargeable whether to voicemail or other.

Just to note - it doesn't matter if a divert is set up in the UK or abroad - it is saved in the EE core network.

I know Vodafone don't charge for any voicemail diverts anywhere in the world - they use a call-through like platform to handle the entire call, and set the 'true' GSM diverts to off, so the foreign network doesn't do any diverting at all.

Thanks for your reply. I realise that's the *theory*, but as EE seemed so adamant that I would be charged, I tried to think of a reason why that might be so:
1. They're legally allowed to charge you, so they do (just to make money, rather than for any technical reason).
2. The voicemail divert itself isn't charged, but somehow EE's voicemail service still tries to contact my mobile (on the foreign network) before actually sending it to voicemail, and that causes a charge. I have no idea if that makes any sense, technically speaking.


I was under the impression that the instructions sent by my handset (to set-up call divert) might not reach EE (or whoever your UK mobile provider is) because the foreign mobile network might intercept it (and try to handle it itself). Therefore you should set it up before leaving the UK, to be on the safe side.

If I was *sure* my unconditional divert could be changed when abroad, then I'd try it out to see whether EE's tech support was right or wrong...

Could you please clarify is that is from personal experience with EE voicemail, or EE diverts to non-voicemail, or just "general experience" of how things have tended to work on other networks?

BTW one other thing to note when changing from Orange to EE is that calls to 150 are no longer free but chargeable at international rates. Just after I made the same change I was on a trip to Kenya and had forgotten to divert my phone (to my Skype number as it happens, which I then redivert to my local SIM card number). I called 150 to get them to do the divert and 9 minutes later had inadvertently incurred a charge of £14.

From personal experience. Unconditional diverts don't incur a charge on EE (or any other network).

And 100% you can set up/cancel the diverts abroad and the charges would be the same.

This part of your answer matches someone else's answer that I found on the subject:
http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/35752641-post11.html

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For interest, the whole discussion can be found here:
http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/93...-overseas.html
Although it is in the "Virgin Mobile Phone Service" forum section, it appears to be fairly relevant to most mobile providers in the UK.

Not all networks let you change diverts from abroad (or possibly it depends upon the network you are roaming on)!

I have no experience of EE with this though.