The bit nobody explains

Call forwarding in Australia: what it costs on Telstra, Optus and Vodafone

Sachin, Melbourne 🇦🇺 · 2026-08-24 · 6 min read

Every 'AI answers your phone' service depends on call forwarding, and almost none of them tell you what it costs. Here's the actual position on each Australian carrier, plus the codes.

If you've ever looked at a phone-answering service, the pitch is always the same: your phone rings out, the call goes to them, they take a message. What nobody puts in writing is that the divert itself is a carrier feature, and carriers treat it very differently.

I had to work this out the hard way. My first attempt failed completely because I was on a Kogan prepaid SIM, and I spent a day assuming the problem was my code.

The short version

So on two of the three big networks, forwarding your missed calls costs you nothing. That's the single most important fact in this whole category, and I got it wrong myself at first — I saw Optus's rate and assumed it applied everywhere.

Why prepaid is the real blocker

Prepaid plans, and most of the MVNOs that piggyback on them, will divert to their own voicemail and nowhere else. Kogan, Felix and Vodafone prepaid all behave this way. There is no code that fixes it, because the restriction is on the network, not your handset.

If you're on prepaid, forwarding is off the table. The alternative is to use a dedicated number for your Google listing and your ads, and leave your personal mobile alone entirely.

MVNOs don't inherit their host network's forwarding features. Being "on the Telstra network" via a reseller is not the same as being on Telstra.

The codes

These are GSM standard, so they're the same on every Australian carrier. Type them into your dialler like a phone number and press call.

• Divert when it rings out: **61*<number>*11*15# — the 15 is how many seconds your phone rings first. Keep it under your voicemail's timer or voicemail wins.
• Divert when you're already on a call: **67*<number># — no timer needed. For a one-person trade this is the biggest leak of the lot: being on the phone to one customer is exactly when the next one rings.
• Divert when you're unreachable: **62*<number># — phone off, flat battery, or no signal.
• Divert everything, phone never rings: **21*<number># — good for after hours, or a day spent under a house.
• Check what's currently set: *#61#
• Turn everything off: ##002#

The trap that cost me a day

Your carrier's voicemail will steal the call at around eight seconds. Six rings. If your divert timer is set to 20 seconds, voicemail answers first every time and your forwarding never fires.

Worse, from the receiving end this looks like success. The call connects, something answers, and the phone system reports a completed call. It just happens to be a robot talking to a robot.

Set your divert timer to 15 seconds or less, and test it by ringing yourself from another phone.

Don't divert to a 1300 number

Most plans exclude 1300 and 1800 numbers from included value, even when standard calls are unlimited. If a service asks you to divert to a 1300 number, you may be paying for every diverted call regardless of your carrier.

Divert to a geographic number — one starting 02, 03, 07 or 08 — or to a mobile.

What this means if you're shopping around

Ask three questions before you sign anything:

1. What number do I divert to? If it's a 1300, expect charges.
2. Does this work on my carrier and my plan type? Prepaid is usually a no.
3. What's the divert timer, and is it under my voicemail's? If they can't answer this, they haven't tested it properly.

I check all three before I set anyone up, because the answer changes which version of Springy makes sense for you. On Telstra or Vodafone postpaid, we divert your missed calls and you keep your number untouched. On Optus or prepaid, you get a Springy number for your ads and listing instead, and your mobile stays exactly as it is.

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