Set Up Call Forwarding on AU Carriers

A missed call is rarely a dead end on purpose. Usually it is a setting nobody got around to changing. The phone rings, you are under a sink or up a ladder or with a patient, and after five or six rings the caller gives up. Nothing diverts. Nothing catches it. The job goes to whoever picks up next.

Call forwarding fixes the plumbing behind that. It tells your carrier where to send a call when you do not answer, when your phone is engaged, or when you are out of coverage. Set up once, it runs quietly in the background for every call after.

This guide gives you the exact forwarding codes for Telstra, Optus and Vodafone, when to use each type, and how to undo it if you change your mind. Bookmark it. You will want it again.

The four types of call forwarding (and why the difference matters)

Most people think call forwarding is one switch. It is four. Each one covers a different reason a call did not reach you, and getting the right one saves you from diverting calls you actually wanted to take.

• Immediate (unconditional) — every call diverts straight away. Your phone never rings. Good for full closures, holidays, or sending an entire line to a receptionist.
• No answer — a call diverts only after it rings for a set time and you have not picked up. Your phone still rings first. This is the one most small businesses want.
• Busy — a call diverts only when your line is already engaged on another call. Catches the second caller who would otherwise hit a flat busy tone.
• Unreachable (no coverage) — a call diverts when your phone is off or out of signal. Useful in basements, on regional jobs, or anywhere reception drops.

For a working business, the combination that loses the fewest calls is no answer + busy + unreachable all pointing to the same destination. That way the phone rings for you first, and anything you cannot take goes somewhere instead of nowhere.

The exact call forwarding codes for Telstra, Optus and Vodafone

These are GSM star codes. You type them straight into the dialler like a phone number and press call. They work the same way on most Australian mobiles regardless of handset. Replace 0712345678 with the real number you want calls sent to, with no spaces and no +.

A few practical notes before you start dialling:

• Press the green call button after typing the code. You should see a short confirmation on screen ("Setting interrogation succeeded" or similar).
• The ** prefix registers and switches on the divert. A single # in front (#21#) turns that divert off but keeps the saved number. ## (##21#) erases it completely.
• ##002# is the panic button. It clears every divert you have set in one go. Worth knowing before you experiment.

Setting the ring time before "no answer" kicks in

The no-answer divert waits a number of seconds before diverting. Too short and callers get bounced before you can reach the phone. Too long and they hang up first. On most Australian networks you set it inside the same code:

**61*0712345678**20#

The 20 is the delay in seconds, and it must be a multiple of 5 (5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30). For a tradie who needs time to put down tools and answer, 15 to 20 seconds is the sweet spot. For a front desk, 10 to 15 keeps callers from waiting.

Doing it without codes, from the phone menu

If the star codes make you nervous, every carrier also exposes call forwarding in the handset settings. The codes are faster and identical across phones, but the menu is reassuring the first time.

• iPhone: Settings, then Phone, then Call Forwarding. Note that the iPhone toggle only controls immediate forwarding. For no-answer and busy diverts you still need the star codes above.
• Android (most brands): Phone app, the three-dot menu or Settings, then Calls or Supplementary services, then Call forwarding. Here you can usually set "Forward when unanswered", "when busy" and "when unreachable" separately.

Because the iPhone menu only handles immediate forwarding, the dial codes are the better path for a business. They give you the conditional diverts the menu hides.

Where should the calls actually go?

This is the part people skip, and it is the part that decides whether forwarding helps. Diverting a call only matters if the destination does something useful. Common options, roughly worst to best:

1. Your own voicemail. Better than a ring-out, but barely. Around 85% of people who reach voicemail never call back, so most of those calls are still lost. You have just moved the dead end.
2. A second mobile or a mate. Works if that person reliably answers and writes things down. Falls apart the moment they are also busy.
3. A paid answering service. A human takes a message. Reliable, but you pay per call or per minute, and after-hours cover gets expensive fast.
4. A virtual receptionist that answers every time. The call is picked up in under 300 milliseconds, the caller is greeted, the job or appointment is booked or a message is taken, and you get a text summary. The call never rings out and never lands in voicemail.

The forwarding codes above are the on-ramp for any of these. They get the call off your unanswered phone and onto something that handles it. The destination you choose is what turns a diverted call into a booked job.

Quick troubleshooting

The divert did not save. Re-check the number format: no spaces, no +, include the leading 0 for a local mobile or landline. Then dial the code again and wait for the confirmation message.

Calls divert even when I want to answer. You have probably set immediate (**21*) instead of no answer (**61*). Dial ##21# to clear the immediate divert, then set the no-answer one.

Nothing diverts at all. Some prepaid plans and a few business plans have call forwarding switched off at the account level. A quick call to your carrier turns it on. There is normally no charge to enable the feature, though a forwarded call may be charged like an outgoing call from your number, so check your plan.

I want to start fresh. Dial ##002#. Every divert clears. Then set only the ones you want.

What this means for you

If you run a trade or a clinic on a mobile, you are losing calls to a setting, not to a competitor. In Australia, 62% of calls to small businesses go unanswered, and almost nobody who hits voicemail rings back. The codes above stop the ring-out for free, in about two minutes. That alone puts you ahead of most of your street.

The catch is the destination. Forwarding to voicemail just relocates the missed call. Forwarding to something that genuinely answers is what saves the job. That is where a virtual receptionist earns its keep. It picks up in under 300 milliseconds, in a natural Australian voice, books the appointment or takes the details, and texts you a summary. It runs on your existing number, so the forward you set today keeps working. If it is ever down, it falls back to your mobile, so you are never worse off than a ring-out.

Ready to make every forwarded call count

Set the forwarding codes today so no call rings out to nothing. Then point them somewhere that actually answers. You can start free with no card on a 30-day trial, keep your current number, and every booking made during the trial is yours to keep. Start free, no card. If you want the bigger picture first, read how to answer every call without hiring a receptionist and how after-hours call answering books jobs while you sleep.