Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (
More info?)
In article <5bk6e01m1ro07h7rkvr4mdcmi68qqrugol@4ax.com>,
The Ghost of General Lee <ghost@general.lee> wrote:
>On Wed, 30 Jun 2004 18:29:15 -0500, "dg" <dg@isp.net> wrote:
>
>>I'm not certain what you are asking for, but it may be that if this is your
>>number, you only have to input the # key to access your voice mail.
>
>I'm pretty sure the OP is looking for a special number which will get
>you right into the voice mail system without having to, 1) call your
>cell from a landline phone, or 2) dialing *86 or your mobile number
>from your cell. I don't think they exist anymore in most markets.
>They were common in the early days of cellular, as back then you would
>often need to call the back door number to retrieve your messages.
>
>And I recall GTE Mobilnet used to have phone numbers in major markets
>in advance of full roaming capability. For example, if we each had
>cell phones and were in Florida, and one of us had to travel to NY,
>you couldn't just call the number of the phone you wanted to reach.
>You had to call the special number in New York, key in the cell number
>when prompted, then it would place your call. This, of course, put
>the burden of knowing where the wayward traveler was and paying for
>the long distance call on the calling party.
There are two different things mentioned here. The OP is talking about
a direct number for the Voice Mail system, where you call the number,
and enter the cell#, to leave or listen to messages for that number's
voice mail. These numbers seem to be disappearing, but they still exist
in some areas (e.g, San Francisco Bay area). They are nice when you want
to just leave a message for someone without ringing their phone. Also,
if you want to check your VM from a landline, you don't have to wait for
your phone to ring and finally go to VM. And using "outcall" from, say
a business PBX, you can be paged that you have a message on that system
(although VZW now has a service which does this in a cleaner way.)
The other function is the "roamer access port". Before roaming was
automatic, you would direct people to call the "roamer access" number
for the system you would be visiting. They call that number, get a
second dial tone, and dial the 10-digit number of the phone roaming
on that system. If your phone was registered on that system, it would
ring. This was also used to bypass long-distance charges, where your
caller would have to pay long-distance to call your cell's number, and
you would have to pay long-distance (plus the airtime) to get the call,
when the other person was on the next block.
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