Abstract: A multi-media interface universally and flexibly supports present (and contemplated) messaging applications including voice mail, facsimile mail, electronic mail, interactive voice response, automated attendant surface services, audio text services, electronic messaging services, radio paging services, speech recognition/speech synthesis, DTMF tone detection, voice recognition, video messaging, video mail, interface of voice and data between the public switched telephone network (PSTN), the packet switched public data network (PSPDN), and mobile/portable telephone subscribers, e.g. cellular telephones and does so at a very high throughput.