Question about voicemail notification

I have an Airvoice Wireless prepaid phone which uses the Cingular
network and related services. I don't use the phone very much at
all. Today I turned on the phone for the first time in about 10
days, and there was no notice of any waiting voicemail.

However, a bit later, with the phone turned off, I called my number
and left a test voicemail message to see if it was working. Then I
turned on the phone, and the waiting voicemail notice was there.
When I went to listen to it, I actually had two messages waiting,
today's test message, and another one that I know was left on the
8th - nine days ago.

Is there a time limit on notification of waiting voicemail? In
other words, if the phone stays off for X days, does the voicemail
notification get lost even though the message is still there waiting
to be heard? If so, is X an official number? If not, does anyone
have a feel for what it might be? How often to I need to turn the
phone on to be sure any notice of waiting messages doesn't get lost?

Is it the same for incoming text messages?

On Tue, 17 Jul 2007 20:52:03 -0500, George <gh424NO824SPAM@cox.net>
wrote in <8neni.1206$sC6.990@newsfe14.lga>:

>I have an Airvoice Wireless prepaid phone which uses the Cingular
>network and related services. I don't use the phone very much at
>all. Today I turned on the phone for the first time in about 10
>days, and there was no notice of any waiting voicemail.
>
>However, a bit later, with the phone turned off, I called my number
>and left a test voicemail message to see if it was working. Then I
>turned on the phone, and the waiting voicemail notice was there.
>When I went to listen to it, I actually had two messages waiting,
>today's test message, and another one that I know was left on the
>8th - nine days ago.
>
>Is there a time limit on notification of waiting voicemail? In
>other words, if the phone stays off for X days, does the voicemail
>notification get lost even though the message is still there waiting
>to be heard? If so, is X an official number? If not, does anyone
>have a feel for what it might be? How often to I need to turn the
>phone on to be sure any notice of waiting messages doesn't get lost?

There's no time limit (short of old voice mail being automatically
deleted). What can happen (rarely) is that the voice mail indicator in
the phone can get out of sync with the system. What you did is a good
way to get it back in sync.

>Is it the same for incoming text messages?

No. Until they expire, they will be delivered when the phone comes on
the network.

--
Best regards, FAQ FOR CINGULAR WIRELESS:
John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cingular_Wireless_FAQ>

On Wed, 18 Jul 2007 04:34:29 GMT, John Navas
<spamfilter1@navasgroup.com> wrote:

>On Tue, 17 Jul 2007 20:52:03 -0500, George <gh424NO824SPAM@cox.net>
>wrote in <8neni.1206$sC6.990@newsfe14.lga>:
>
>>I have an Airvoice Wireless prepaid phone which uses the Cingular
>>network and related services. I don't use the phone very much at
>>all. Today I turned on the phone for the first time in about 10
>>days, and there was no notice of any waiting voicemail.
>>
>>However, a bit later, with the phone turned off, I called my number
>>and left a test voicemail message to see if it was working. Then I
>>turned on the phone, and the waiting voicemail notice was there.
>>When I went to listen to it, I actually had two messages waiting,
>>today's test message, and another one that I know was left on the
>>8th - nine days ago.
>>
>>Is there a time limit on notification of waiting voicemail? In
>>other words, if the phone stays off for X days, does the voicemail
>>notification get lost even though the message is still there waiting
>>to be heard? If so, is X an official number? If not, does anyone
>>have a feel for what it might be? How often to I need to turn the
>>phone on to be sure any notice of waiting messages doesn't get lost?
>
>There's no time limit (short of old voice mail being automatically
>deleted). What can happen (rarely) is that the voice mail indicator in
>the phone can get out of sync with the system. What you did is a good
>way to get it back in sync.
>
>>Is it the same for incoming text messages?
>
>No. Until they expire, they will be delivered when the phone comes on
>the network.


Another example of Navas giving an incorrect, incomplete answer.

Voicemail expires after only 14 days, and only up to 20 messages will
be stored.

http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/ba.../voicemail.jsp

<karlkrandall@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news:95qr935lpkam8po7o1fr9hcqign257u9oe@4ax.com...
example of Navas giving an incorrect, incomplete answer.
>
> Voicemail expires after only 14 days, and only up to 20 messages will
> be stored.
>
> http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/ba.../voicemail.jsp

This is the one thing that got changed (when Cingular bought ATT wireless)
that really chaps my hide. I used to be able to store messages
indefinitely, now it forces me to delete them, I can't even forward
them to myself and restart the clock..

This was a real drop in service IMHO.

Bernard