Both. It depends on what problem you are trying to solve.
The simple answer though is what @amarok says. You set it up on the carrier side and it basically works independently of the phone.
There will always be times that your phone will be “off the network” e.g. outside an area where there is service or e.g. battery has gone flat or e.g. shutdown / rebooting. In that case the only way of supporting voicemail is in the network i.e. by the carrier.
However if you just didn’t want to take the call, or potentially if you are already on a call, there may be benefits in allowing your phone itself to record a voicemail. Maybe one day the Librem 5 will be able to do that.
Does any carrier support a phone already on a call recording a new incoming call? Would that be some time division multiplexing thing with reduced bandwidth on each call?
I was referencing obvious potential rather than actual current implementation.
As we get convergence between voice and data you can almost put the question the other way round: why wouldn’t it be supported?
As far as I know, you can already do this with VoIP. Maybe you can do this with VoLTE.
As an additional factor, if you have a dual SIM phone (not that that is the Librem 5) then in theory the situation already arises that you are on a call using one SIM and a call comes in using the other SIM. (The specific point is that the SIMs can be on different networks so TDM and reduced bandwidth is not possible for the network itself to implement. It depends on the behaviour of the device’s cellular modem.)
Finally, even today you should be able to put the first call on hold while diverting the second call to local voicemail and then (assuming that the second caller isn’t reading War and Peace to you), when the voicemail recording ends, resume the first call.
There is also this visual voice mail indicator that I believe iPhones show on the device side. A community member has created a solution for that and it might make it into the calls program.
Has anybody had success in getting Visual Voicemail to work on the L5 with Awesim?
I have setup voicemail, but the visual voicemail app cant retrieve the messages. Alternatively if there was just a UI indicator in the status bar - a little mailbox type sign or bell than a user would know they need to call their voicemail box (really it should be a native L5 pureos based notification).
VVM App doesnt activate the service, its runs on the phone but cant activate with the AT&T network to clarify,
it doesnt save the password in config file (Chris helpfully pointed out to stop the vvm service prior to editing)
From Matrix Conversation: @kop316 thanks for the tip but unfortunately does not work or save password
[Modem Manager]
VVMEnabled=false
VVMType=AT&TUSAProprietary
VVMDestinationNumber=94183567
CarrierPrefix=##########
DefaultModemNumber=NULL
ProvisionStatus=2
IMSI=#####
but these are the sms messages it sends when i try to activate not sure what that meams “GET?AD=“vvm.mobile.att.net:5400?v=1010&S=U&s=5433&m=##########”” also notice the " after my phone number hope that doesnt cause the issue in config, so my password i am not adding the " after the password.
As of now, AweSIM doesn’t support Visual Voicemail. @Kyle_Rankin is looking into what needs to be done to support it, then I can ensure vvmd supports the AweSIM carrier.
vvmd/vvmplayer currently supports T-Mobile USA (and related MVNOs) and Verizon USA (and MVNOs).
At one point it supported AT&T…but I think they changed around how they do VVM authentication so I don’t know if it works anymore. I have been tempted to fix it, but I’m not in the mood to spend 40$ to fix it.
I implemented the desktop shortcut solution- in my case for voicemail. Is there a way- maybe Calls does not support that yet- to add pauses in so extensions (e.g. voicemail passwords) can be entered programatically:
MyNumber(+countrydigit+10digits)+8sec wait(minus the parentheses amd quotes)+my AT&T Voicemail Password Pin(7digits).
I have tried commas and # symbol but calls just ignores these, or maybe the desktop file doesnt feed all the values.
Ok maybe the calls app doesnt support pauses after trying to enter my number manually with # and extension which doesnt work, also , symbol is not accepted at all.
Another possibility is that the Librem 5 throws the # character at the modem and the modem is just dialing it!
DTMF supports 16 code points, namely 0-9 # * and 4 other codes that are conventionally A-D (but I don’t think I’ve ever seen A-D on a keypad). Dialling probably isn’t DTMF anymore anyway but old standards die hard.
So for a pause it has to be a character that is not dialled and that character either is implemented on the host (if possible) or passed to the modem and recognised and implemented on the modem.
I believe that “comma” is the de facto standard for a dialling pause. It should wait a number of seconds equal to the value of the modem register S8 (default 2). Obviously that relies on the comma being passed through by the Librem 5 to the modem.
The problem is that dialling just works completely differently these days.
This topic reminds me of something that a few of my colleagues at work built. They started with an old traditional rotary dial telephone as a base. They removed the cord and most of the inside components, leaving behind the old ringer bell. They installed a new circuit board with a SIM card installed, along with a lot of other board mounted components, and a battery. When you picked up the handset, you got a traditional dial tone and could call out using the rotary dialer. When the phone rang, you could answer it by picking up the handset and holding it up to your ear. But there were no hard phone lines nor power cords attached. The dial-tone was added for the affect. But the phone was completely autonomous and cellular. The Applications Engineers wanted to show-off their new circuit-board-mounted cellular modem.
So entering my number # and pin results in an automated answer “your call cannot be completed as dialed. please check your number and dial again. US 01 LV” ill peruse the interweb to see what that means.
I’m curious about this configuration, too. That config file has the “MailboxActive” setting and so does the Visual Voicemail app. They both are false on mine, but I can find no documentation on what this means or how to activate the mailbox. Does anyone have any leads?
Also, I get those visual voicemail texts from AT&T, as well. Are those messages supposed to be intercepted and interpreted by vvmd?
The message seems to be delimited by ampersands (’&’). I get a few variables in my messages. Anyone know what they mean? I see variables:
‘f’
‘v’ - version?
‘m’ - phone number
‘p’, ‘P’ - often blank, maybe a unique ID?
‘S’ - single letter, usually “I” for me and “U” in the previous post
‘i’ - some ratio. It is usually the same among all messages for me
‘t’ - Extra text, delimited by colons between fields
An example of a received text is below, with all numbers replaced with ‘#’, letters substituted with ‘@’ and text strings replaced with strings encapsulated in brackets ‘<>’, eg ‘<description>’. I mainly did that to protect me, as I don’t know what info is personal to me.
vvm.mobile.att.net:5400?f=#&v=####&m=##########&p=<mixed case, no space, often empty>&P=<same as 'p'>&S=@&s=####&i=###/###&t=#:<same as 'm'>
:@:CMSGROUP#####:ms##:<client/WEB/IMAP4>:#####
I see on vvmd gitlab page that there is a branch called ‘wip/att_fix’. So, that is where I’ll begin to look.
!
. And I hope João realizes that.