A voice messaging system. The voice messaging system includes a set of geographically distributed devices in which voice messages are stored and logic that causes voice messages to be stored in respective devices in the set of devices from which messages can be efficiently retrieved. The logic may cause voice messages to be stored in a device from the set of devices closest to a location from which the user has retrieved messages. A voice message system comprising logic that receives and stores messages from callers for respective users and logic that selects and plays a message not left by a caller to a user. The message is selected based on information about the user, and the message not left by a caller may comprise an advertisement. A method of storing messages in a voice messaging system that has a plurality of voice mail boxes associated with a plurality of subscribers. An incoming call is received and responded to based on a data field in an incoming call that identifies the subscriber's telephone number.