I have a New Shiny Thing.

It’s an HTC One XL handset, 4G/LTE-equipped on Telstra’s NextG network, running Android version 4.0.4 (a flavour of Ice Cream Sandwich).

Telstra “personalises” the handset prior to sale, so it’s pre-programmed with the right Access Point Names, message centre settings and so on. Unfortunately this also means Telstra pre-installs its own user interface, BigPond shortcuts and other guff.

I moved my telephone service from a personal account to a business account. In doing so, Telstra has set up a new MessageBank voicemail box for me, which I don’t want. Here’s how to get rid of the diversions.

Settings / Call / Call Forwarding

There are four options in the handset:

• Always forward (default to disabled)
• Forward when busy (default to +61101)
• Forward when unanswered (default to +61101)
• Forward when unreachable (default to +61101)

+61101 is the number for Telstra MessageBank.

Unfortunately, again, Telstra makes it difficult for you to disable these diversions. In fact, Telstra does everything in its power to ensure missed calls are somehow converted to successful calls.

If you try to disable call forwarding, you’ll see this error (left).

To cancel all diversions you can dial ##002# and press Send. This is an MMI code which tells the network to cancel all diversions on your service. But on Telstra, this just replaces your diversions with Voice2Text settings.

You need to call Telstra on 125111 (business customers 1800 46 7200) to have a diversion removed completely. Grab a cup of coffee, get comfortable and make the call. Prepare to invest 30 minutes of your life that you’ll never get back. Say “operator” 42 times to get through the stupid speech-rec IVR. Explain politely that you’d like to have the MessageBank diversions removed from your phone. Once you find the right customer service rep for your account or service, they should be able to do this fairly fast.

Telstra makes it difficult, because unanswered calls are lost revenue for telcos.

Good luck.