Data communications sessions for visual voicemail data communications are terminated under the control of a wireless device's visual voicemail client. In one embodiment, a visual voicemail client can be configured to transmit a request or command to terminate a data communications session immediately upon sending an acknowledgement of receiving voicemail data from a voicemail server. In another embodiment, a visual voicemail client can be configured to transmit a request or command to terminate a data communications session following the expiration of a timer set by the visual voicemail client. Alternatively, a visual voicemail client can be configured to wait for a termination request for command from a voicemail server.