Does your phone ring tone cut off too quickly?
Have you ever gotten to your phone a little to late? After a few rings, you’re finally able to view your caller ID and tap or slide the answer button, only to find out you’re too late. If it’s an important call(er), all you have to do is ring them back, but it’s not always that simple.
For instance, what if it’s a call from a company that you’ve been expecting, and calling back would mean countless minutes of wait time and you’d have to explain all over again what the issue is when you finally get a hold of a representative?
If you find yourself in a situation where your phone simply stops ringing too quickly, Telstra have provided a way to fix this. In this post, we’ll tell you all about how to extend your ring time, so read on to find out.
Ring time
Ring time refers to how long your phone rings before cutting off. The party who dials your number will either be diverted to your voicemail box to leave a message if you’ve set one up, or receive a message that you’re unavailable if you don’t have a voicemail box.
Either of these solutions can be inconvenient at times if the party would rather speak to you than a machine. Instead, they might give you a call back right away (and you might miss that call as well because of your short ring time), or perhaps just avoid calling you back out of frustration.
To avoid this, you can actually extend your ring time to have a longer opportunity to pick your phone calls. For Telstra customers, this can be done directly from your handset without having t call your telco.
How to extend ring time on Telstra SIM plan
If you have a Telstra SIM only plan for your mobile, you likely have MessageBank – voicemail for your phone. The default setting for a phone using a Telstra SIM is 15 seconds of ring time. That means after your phone rings for 15 seconds, the caller will be diverted to your Telstra MessageBank if you’ve set it up.
Fifteen seconds is a reasonable amount of ring time, but it might be too short in some cases. Here’s how Telstra customers can extend their ring time in 5-second increments to a maximum of 30 seconds:
- Open your call app on your mobile phone
- Dial **61*101**(number of seconds: 15, 20, 25 or 30)#. For example, if you’d like to increase the default 15-second ring time to 20 seconds (by 5 seconds), dial **61*101**20#
- After entering the above sequence, tap send/call. That’s it.
Keep in mind that this only works for direct voice calls using your Telstra cellular network, and not VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocal) calls. VoIP technology relies on the Internet (WiFi or mobile data) to make calls, so while you can extend ring time, you would likely have to do so through the VoIP app that you are using.
How to extend ring time on Android and iPhone, regardless of your telco
If you’re not a Telstra customer, then don’t worry – you can extend your ring time even if you are using a SIM only plan from another telco, regardless of whether you’re using an Android phone or an iPhone.
Here’s how to extend ring time on your Android or iPhone:
- Open your call app on your mobile phone
- Dial *#61# and tap send/call
- Take note of the call-forwarding phone number shown on the screen, and write it down if you have to
- Go back to your call app and dial **61*(voicemail/forwarding number retrieved in previous step, without country code)**(number of seconds: 15, 20, 25, or 30)#. For instance, if your forwarding number is 1234567890 without the country code, to increase your ring time to 20 seconds, dial **61*1234567890**20#
- Tap send/call and you’re all set.
If these steps don’t work for you, try adding the country code including the “+” sign. If that also doesn’t work for you, try adding *10* after your voicemail/forwarding number. For example, **61*+611234567890*10*20# or **61*1234567890*10*20# respectively.
Some users have also reported that the sequence only works for them when they begin with just one *. For instance, *61*+611234567890*10*20# or *61*1234567890*10*20#
Keep in mind that some telcos provide long voicemail or forwarding numbers, while others can be as short as 2 or 3 digits. If all else fails, give your telco a call to extend your ring time.
Conclusion
Most people don’t realise you can extend the ring time your phone will give you. There are, in fact, multiple options available to get this done. It’s not hard to understand why people want to do this — we lead increasingly busy lives and many of us invariably, unfortunately, have to multi-task to get things done.
Imagine juggling getting the kids in the vehicle with making sure your groceries don’t fall out of their bags and roll away in the car park. That’s a common scene which can get more even more complicated when your phone starts ringing.
Extending the duration of the time your phone rings gives you a few extra moments to finish what you’re doing and answer the call. Of course, the extra time also allows you consider your options, and decide more sensibly if you want to pick the call up or not. After all, with so many fraud and spam calls in Australia these days (many people get more than one per week), it pays to be circumspect in deciding whether the call is one you want to invest your time in.
Extend your ring time using the USSD codes we’ve provided, and you can impress your friends with your next level time management and demonstrate the advantages of being more circumspect about the calls you want to deal with.