What is Voicemail Escape?

When a user configures simultaneous ringing to a cell phone, a caller will typically be routed to the user’s cell phone voice mail if the cell phone is turned off, out of battery power, or out of range.
With Microsoft Lync Server 2013, users can opt to have calls routed to their UM voice mail.
A timer can be configured, and if the call is answered by the carrier’s voice mail within the range of time defined, Lync Server 2013 will disconnect from the carrier’s voice mail system (and the user’s cell voice mail), while the user’s remaining endpoints in the corporate system continue to ring. This way, the caller is automatically routed to the user’s corporate voice mail.

How to configure Voicemail Escape?

Like all good Lync features…from Lync Server Management Shell cmdlet

Either as a User Policy

Set-CsVoicePolicy UserVoicePolicy -EnableVoiceMailEscapeTimer $true – PSTNVoicemailEscapeTimer 2000     (time in milliseconds, default 15000 max 8000)

In other words if the call is answered within 2000 milliseconds then drop it, not perfect but a good start – I’ll give this one a good review before making any more comments 😉