phoning the uk from abroad

[Linnet]

My dh is in Geneva this weekend staying with his friend. He tried to phone me tonight but kept getting put straight through to the 1571 message system. So he texted me to let me know he was trying to phone me but I wasn't on the phone so he tried again and the same thing happened.

So, I tried to call his mobile phone but it kept telling me that it didn't recognise the number. So I then tried to phone his friends house number and got through to a messaging service there.

In the end we connected when I called his friends mobile phone but it had taken almost 20 minutes to finally get in touch with each other.

Does anybody know why we couldn't get in touch with each other? Is it normal to get put straight through to the messaging service even when the phone isn't engaged? I'm just curious as it was just a quick call to confirm that I'm picking him up at the airport tomorrow but if it had been an emergency and I'd been trying to get hold of him I would have been distraught. I know I was using all the right codes etc so does anyone have an explanation? I've never had to phone abroad before.

May be daft question but has he had his roaming bars lifted so he can use his mobile abroad?

No idea Jackstini but he phoned on Friday when he arrived in Geneva and again got straight through to the messaging service so he just left a message saying that he was there.

It puzzled me that I couldn't get through to his friends land line either and just got a messaging service.

Sounds very strange, I have never had problems calling UK from either Germany, France, or Italy. I can't see that Switzerland would be any different. Perhaps there was a problem with the line.

Our messaging service does come on when the line is engaged but not when the caller is from another country.

The only time I have had difficulty getting through has been when the phone lines are really busy, just after midnight on Hogmany for instance when everyone is on the phone.

Nope we lived in Switzerland and never had a problem calling UK unless local lines were especially busy. You have to call his mobile using the 0044 UK country code and drop the first 0. It is possible his network does n't have local coverage as reception there can be patchy and it depends on whether his phone links into a local network with coverage there.