Also - maybe I am calling something visual voicemail that isn't visual voicemail. I just want a list of all the voicemails received. That way I can scroll through them and get my work done.
No, you're calling it exactly what it is.
If Google Voice Lite's hacky workaround doesn't give you an adequate substitute to what you need (it will basically send you SMS messages of
hilariously transcribed voicemail messages with the name/number of the contact - but to be fair to Google,
their accuracy is now 49% better! *snicker*), I don't know what else to tell you. This is the price of convenience and an ultra-expensive, ultra-proprietary handset that
literally has an approved carrier list. You wander off that list, they break "core features" of your phone and you become a second class citizen. A great example of this is AT&T MVNOs and MMS data configuration. Even after purchase and unlock, you basically still don't own your phone. This is a company that basically wants to dictate the carrier and plans you can use, even after paying them a king's ransom for a stupid slab of electronics that they openly admit to
basically designing with a three year planned obsolescence cycle.
Now, to be fair to Apple, we
are specifically talking about a feature that is
carrier dependent for integration and not exclusive to iPhones anymore. That said, it's still a creature comfort feature. The primary carriers as a general rule don't provide these features to their wholesale MVNO partners, because it's fiddly little features like this they use to justify charging such hefty premiums. Financial exploitation of hedonic adaptation at its finest. You look at the providers on the approved Apple list, outside of the 800lb gorilla MVNOs owned by Carlos Slim that you used to be with and the boutique brands owned by the major carriers
pretending to be MVNOs, nearly everyone on that list is a rinky-dink regional network operator. All of them have visual voicemail, and all the carriers want the uber-expensive, data hungry, high end luxury phones on their network
directly as well to increase revenue themselves. Here's the reasoning: If you have deep enough pockets to buy a $400+ cellphone - even on credit/subsidized? That's basically advertising that you're a cash cow, and they want a permanent tap off your udder.
There's the landscape for you and your options in greater detail, with the reasons they are the way they are. Adapt or be milked.
