Abstract: A network comprising a plurality of voice and/or fax mail systems and one or more exchanges, each having one or more of the voice and/or fax mail systems connected thereto via a plurality of associated access lines, wherein each of the voice and/or fax mail systems has an associated network interface such as a Fiber Distributed Data Interface to a message path interconnecting all of the voice and/or fax mail systems. The network increases the total capacity of the voice and/or fax mail system so that subscribers can leave and retrieve messages in real time, even during busy times of the day.