Verizon Wireless upgrades to visual voicemail: LG Voyager first to offer service

Verizon Wireless quietly launched visual voicemail, allowing customers to view caller and voicemail information and listen to voicemail messages in any order on their phone.
Voice messages will be displayed on users’ phones with sender and time information, and customers can scroll through the messages and pick the ones they’d like to listen to. That means users don’t have to call their automated voicemail system, wait for the auto-voicemail message, enter a password and play through all those old saved messages just to get to the new one.
Verizon Wireless said its service allows customers to save up to 40 messages for 40 days. Similar to text messaging, there will be an inbox and new message icon, and users can listen to or delete the messages.
Interestingly, the carrier said visual voicemail users will also be able to archive their messages in multiple locations. For example, users can keep a copy of a specific message in their device’s internal memory or on a removable memory card. Users can also send the audio file via e-mail or multimedia message service.
Verizon Wireless said its new visual voicemail offering is currently available for the LG Electronics Co. Ltd. “Voyager Refresh” touchscreen phone. The carrier said existing Voyager customers can bring their device to a Verizon Wireless retail store to have the device upgraded for visual voicemail.
“Additional devices will be introduced in the future,” promised the carrier.
Verizon Wireless is the latest carrier to move into the visual voicemail space. Spurred by the popularity of Apple Inc.’s iPhone, which sports the offering, carriers such as Sprint Nextel Corp. (through its new Instinct from Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.) have also introduced the service.