Call Forwarding - Keypad Codes

Keypad Codes

Special types of call forwarding can be activated only if the line is busy, or if there is no answer, or even only for calls from selected numbers. In North America, the NANP generally uses the following vertical service codes to control call forwarding:

The Sprint Nextel cellphone company uses these:

• As of Jan 2012, Sprint charges 20 cents per minute for unconditional call forwarding, conditional call forwarding is included however.

• Some carriers (including Verizon Wireless) use *71 for conditional forwarding although this is not standard.

• Sometimes, to deactivate a call forwarding, *720 will work on cellphones.

Most EU fixed-line carriers use the following codes based on CEPT and ETSI standards developed in the 1970s on both POTS and ISDN lines: (There may be some variation to these, but the unconditional code *21*, is very much universally standard on EU telephone lines.) The general syntax for all European service codes always follows the pattern below:

For GSM/3GSM (UMTS) phones, the GSM standard defines the following forwarding codes. These were developed by ETSI and are based on standard European diversion codes and are similar to those used on most landlines in the EU:

If the prefix to the forwarding command is "**" (instead of the usual "*"), then the phone number in that command is registered in the network. If after that the forwarding is deactivated using a command with a single "#", then later it will be possible to re-activate this forwarding again with a simple "*" command without a phone number in it. The forwarding will be re-activated to the number registered in the network. For example, if one uses the out-of-reach code in a forwarding command:

**62*7035551212#

and after that one deactivates the forwarding:

#62#

then later it will be possible to re-activate the out-of-reach forwarding without specifying a number:

*62#

After the above command, all calls made to the phone, while it is out of reach, will be forwarded to 7035551212. It is possible to activate the feature to a number other than the registered number, whilst still retaining the registered number for later use. For example, issuing the command:

*62*7185551212#

will result in calls being forwarded to 7185551212 (and not to the registered number 7035551212). However, if later a command is issued:

*62#

then the calls will again be forwarded to the registered number 7035551212 (and not to the number from the previous forwarding command 7185551212).

Additionally, in GSM networks, such as T-Mobile and AT&T Mobility in USA, and all mobile networks in EU, it is possible to set the number of seconds the phone will ring before forwarding. This is specified by inserting "*SC*XX" prior to the final "#" of the forwarding command, where "SC" is a service type code (11 for voice, 25 for data, 13 for fax), and "XX" is the number of seconds in increments of 5 seconds. If "SC" is omitted (just "**XX") then by default all service types will be forwarded. For example, forwarding on no-answer can be set with:

*61***#

In some networks there may be a limit of not more than 30 seconds before forwarding (i.e. "XX" can only be 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 or 30; all greater values, like 45 and 60, will result in the forwarding command being rejected and an error message returned).