Abstract: A method of automatically allocating a mailbox to a called party in a digital telephone network, including the steps: receiving a call to be routed to a called party; extracting one or more relevant predefined parameters from the call; using one or more of the extracted parameters to determine the existence of a mailbox associated with the called party; if an associated mailbox exists, translating the call to that mailbox address; if there is not a mailbox associated with the called party, allocating a mailbox from a pre-existing pool of mailboxes available for allocation to the called party; diverting the call to the allocated mailbox.