How to set up call forwarding in Australia

What conditional call forwarding actually means

Call forwarding, carriers usually call it call diversion, sends an incoming call on your business number somewhere else before it ever reaches you. There are two broad flavours:

• Unconditional forwarding (sometimes labelled "all calls" or "immediate") sends every incoming call straight to the other number. Your phone doesn't ring at all.
• Conditional forwarding only kicks in under a specific condition. The three common conditions are:
  • Busy: you're already on another call.
  • No answer (unanswered): the phone rings out without being picked up, usually after 15 to 20 seconds.
  • Unreachable: your phone is off, has no signal, or is out of range.

Most tradies want a mix: their own phone rings first, and only the calls they genuinely miss (busy, no answer, out of range) get diverted somewhere useful. That's conditional forwarding, and it's what the rest of this guide sets up.

Every major Australian carrier supports it, but the exact codes and menu names differ between carriers, and sometimes between plans on the same carrier. Treat what follows as a starting point and confirm against the linked official page for your service, since carriers update these without much notice.

Setting it up on Telstra

Telstra mobile

Telstra's own support page lists four forwarding types and their codes: How do I forward calls on my mobile?

• Call Forward All Calls Unconditional: code 21
• Call Forward Busy: code 67
• Call Forward No Answer: code 61
• Call Forward Unreachable: code 62

To turn one on, open the dial pad and enter **[code]*[number]#, then press call, for example **67*0400123456# to divert calls when you're busy. Telstra's own page isn't fully consistent on the exact trailing digits (its worked example uses *10# on the end, while its summary table shows *11#), so don't rely on memory: use the exact keystrokes shown on the page for your handset. To turn a diversion off, dial ##[code]#, for example ##67#. To check whether one is active, dial *#[code]#. Unconditional forwarding only can also be switched on or off by sending an SMS to 144.

Last checked: 16 July 2026.

Telstra home phone (nbn)

Telstra's landline instructions use a different, simpler set of codes: Forward calls to another number

• Call Forward Immediate: dial *21, enter the number, press #, hang up. Turn off with #21#.
• Call Forward Busy: dial *24, enter the number, press #, hang up. Turn off with #24#.
• Call Forward No Answer: dial *61, enter the number, press #, hang up. Turn off with #61#.

Notice these are different codes to the mobile ones above, single star instead of double, and there's no unreachable option, since a landline doesn't go out of range. This is exactly why we keep pointing at the specific page for the specific service.

Last checked: 16 July 2026.

Setting it up on Optus

Optus mobile

Optus documents its own codes for manual diversion: Manage call diversions on your Mobile Phone

• All calls, no ring at all, recommended if you're roaming: code 21
• Busy: code 67
• No answer: code 61
• No coverage (unreachable): code 62
• All conditional diversions at once, busy, no answer and no coverage together: code 004

To add a diversion, dial **[code]*[target number]**[ring time]# and press call, choosing a ring time of 05, 10, 15, 20, 25 or 30 seconds, and including the area code for fixed-line targets. To remove one, dial ##[code]#. To check status, dial #[code]# (note: no leading star, unlike Telstra and Vodafone). If you're setting the target number while overseas, prefix it with +61.

Last checked: 16 July 2026.

Optus home phone

Optus's home phone diversion is simpler again: Manage Home Phone call diversions

Lift the handset, wait for the dial tone, dial *78, then enter the number you want calls diverted to (including area code for fixed-line numbers). Two short beeps confirm it's active. To turn it off, dial #78 and listen for two short beeps confirming it's removed. Optus's page doesn't document separate busy or no-answer codes for home phone diversion the way it does for mobile, so if you need conditional diversion on a landline, confirm current options with Optus directly.

Last checked: 16 July 2026.

Setting it up on Vodafone

Vodafone's preferred method is the My Vodafone app, with the manual dial-code method as the fallback: Managing call forwarding

• All calls (unconditional): code 21
• No answer: code 61
• Unreachable: code 62
• Busy: code 67

To activate, dial **[code]*[number]# and press call, for example **61*0400123456# for no-answer forwarding. To deactivate a single type, dial #[code]#. To confirm the current setting, dial *#[code]#. To cancel every diversion at once, dial ##002#; to cancel just the conditional ones and leave unconditional alone, dial ##004#. You can also cancel unconditional forwarding by simply dialling 1213.

Last checked: 16 July 2026.

Mobile vs fixed line, and prepaid vs postpaid

A few things catch people out:

• Mobile and fixed line use different codes. Telstra and Optus both use one set of codes for mobiles and a different, shorter set for landlines. Don't copy mobile codes onto a landline, or the reverse.
• Prepaid often works differently to postpaid. On Vodafone, a postpaid service can forward calls to a standard Australian mobile or landline number, to voicemail, or to Call Catcher, but not to 13, 1300 or 1800 numbers. A prepaid Vodafone service can only forward to voicemail or Call Catcher, not to another number at all. On Optus, prepaid mobile diversions are charged at 10 cents a minute for the diverted leg of the call, plus international rates if you're diverting overseas, while postpaid diversions bill at your plan's normal rates and can't be sent to an international number at all. Confirm what your own plan actually allows before you organise a workflow around it.
• International numbers are often blocked or cost more. Don't assume a diversion will reach an overseas number cleanly, or cheaply.
• You usually still pay for the second leg of the call, for anything diverted somewhere other than voicemail. Check your carrier's cost page (Optus publishes one, linked above) if that matters to your budget.

Test it before you rely on it

Call forwarding that hasn't been tested is a guess. Before you point it at anything you care about, run through this:

1. Set the diversion you actually want, usually no answer, busy and unreachable together, using the steps for your carrier above.
2. Ring your business number from a different phone. A mate's mobile is fine, not your own.
3. Confirm the call actually arrives at the number you diverted to, and that whoever answers can hear the caller clearly.
4. Test the busy and unreachable conditions separately. Call your number again while you're already on another call, and once more with your phone off or out of signal, confirming each one diverts correctly.
5. Turn the diversion off, using the deactivation code or your handset's menu, then confirm a normal call rings your phone again as expected.
6. Turn it back on and do one final test call before you rely on it for real customers. If an enquiry hits a dead end because the diversion silently failed, you won't hear about it, the caller just hangs up and rings the next tradie.

A few warnings

Codes vary by carrier, by device, and sometimes by plan. What's above matches what each carrier's own support page shows today, but carriers update these without much notice, and some newer handsets replace manual codes with a menu screen entirely (typically Phone app, Settings, Calling accounts or Supplementary services, Call forwarding). If a code doesn't seem to work, that's the first thing to check, not a sign you've done something wrong.

Never set your diversion target to 000, or any other emergency or special-purpose number. It won't do anything useful, most networks reject the request outright, and it's not how emergency calls work in any case: forwarding only changes where incoming calls to your business number go. It has no effect on your own ability to dial 000 from your handset.

Where to point your diversion

Once forwarding is working, the obvious question is what to actually divert to. Voicemail catches a message nobody follows up until you're back at the ute. A second mobile you're also trying to work off doesn't solve the busy or unreachable case at all. This is the gap AI phone answering is built for. frontdesq is Brisbane-based AI phone answering built for Australian trades: your missed, busy or after-hours calls divert to it, it answers 24/7, has an actual back-and-forth with the caller, books the job into your calendar if there's one to book, and texts you a summary the moment the call ends. It's still your number and your forwarding, just with somewhere reliable for the calls you genuinely can't take to land. If you're weighing that up against sticking with voicemail, our voicemail vs an AI answering service breakdown covers the trade-offs in more depth.