Does anyone know the deal on which carriers offer it on what kind of packages?
It seems to be a thing that is not promoted at all for some reason. Why is that?
For example, a find it impossible to find out on what packages it is offered on Telstra. Is it still $5/month on post paid?
It’s included on my plan with Telstra, the Large mobile plan.
It’s probably not advertised because it’s a niche feature.
On Telstra it’s still called MessageBank Plus, though, and it’s included on all Go Mobile Plans for post-paid Consumer customers. Business customers need to meet some minimum spend levels before getting MessageBank Plus for free; $55 for Go Business Mobile SIM plans, $60 for Go Business Mobile Casual plans, and $85 for Go Business Mobile SBO plans.
If you’re on an older plan with Telstra, such as the $80 Every Day Connect (with mobile phone plan) or $60 BYO plan then you also get MessageBank Plus for free, otherwise everything else is a $5 monthly charge. Note that MessageBank Plus is not available for pre-paid customers.
Here endeth my expertise, some Optus or Vodafone folks will have to chime in.
EDIT: Optus doesn’t look like they support visual voicemail, and Vodafone appears to have it included on every plan under the sun.
I remember having to ring Telstra 6 times to get Visual Voicemail actually working. Despite the T Life store and several call centre agents telling me it was set up, it wasn’t. That’s how niche it is! It depends on who you talk to.
As Benny has already said, Vodafone are the only other carrier in Aus that have it.
Really it’s that niche? Both my wife and I have had it since day 1 - you pay an extra $5 for it many years ago not sure if our current plans even consider this.
I love Visual Voicemail. I’m on Telstra. I did have to ask for it by name - not on by default. I couldn’t go back now though! It’s annoying every time you go overseas if you want to disable Voicemail you need to go through the rigmarole of getting it re-activated. I use the 24x7 chat to get it done.
I’ve got it on Telstra. Did it via Live Chat. Just asked to activate “Messagebank Plus” it was done in 10min 
No charge on my $50 plan.
Optus are crap. They have no plans of adding visual voicemail. I’ve asked a number of times and the response was always it was being investigated, but it’s been years now and no plans to add it.
I don’t understand why they can’t implement it now. In the early days of the iPhone it was because they used to charge you for voicemail deposits and retrievals, but with free voicemail on most plans now, I don’t see what the holdup is.
Yep. If one is with Vodafone and for some odd reason Visual Voicemail is not active on their service, one simply calls 1217 to enable it.
One of many reasons I’m not with them.
I didn’t realise this was still a thing and carriers didn’t offer it. I’ve been with Vodafone since the iPhone 3G and remember it being a selling point then but assumed the others caught up. Apparently not!
Thanks for the Live chat tip !! I’ve just done the same and they activated it for me with no 5 dollar a month hit to my byod plan. Cheers.
Vodafone have had it since the 3G S was released in 2009. Of course no one needed or wanted it because no one on the Vodafone network was able to make or receive phone calls back then.
Just signed up for Messagebank plus via 24x7 live chat. I don’t understand why it isn’t offered whenever someone sets up an iPhone with Telstra. It’s awesome.
From the discussion above it would seem prepaid services like Boost don’t offer visual voicemail then?
Sweet! Just jumped on 24x7 chat and they enabled it on the spot - $0p/m 
I’m so used to it for so many years that when I go overseas when they don’t provide it the experience makes me appreciate it even more.
We have Optus providing all of our corporate mobile services. I’ve requested a straight answer from our account rep., none has come yet.
A year(?) or so back Optus “upgraded” their voice mail system, all it seemed to result in was an … even … slower … voice … prompt … system. Argh! that voice annoys me. We can get their voice to text service at some cost per subscriber per month, so they’d lose out on that revenue now the 6S and beyond can do that themselves.
Edit: speling
I’d assumed that the plan I am on wouldn’t be eligible for Messagebank Plus at $0/m but I jumped onto web chat anyway and to my surprise it’s been added. Sensational!
You mean voicemail transcription on iOS 10? Yeah, that feature requires Visual Voicemail: http://www.imore.com/how-use-voicemail-transcripts-ios-10-iphone