Incoming callers are not going to receive a busy signal since the outside lines themselves are not busy; the voice mail ports are simply tied up. Since they are tied up, the incoming calls ring in queue until one of them becomes available to receive a call. This assumes that the hunt group for the voice mail ports are established and set up properly.

The TVA50 can only process two simultaneous calls of any kind, whether inside parties checking messages or outside callers who are calling into the system. It can be expanded to up to six ports, allowing it to process more calls. This requires the addition of expansion cards. Using a two-port system to provide VM and auto attendant services is almost guaranteed to cause problems. It's just too much call volume for a basic setup to handle.

The TVA200 comes out of the box equipped for four ports, but may be expanded to 24 ports. Again, this is through the use of expansion cards. The number of VM/AA ports that you decide to equip will detract from the number of available station ports on the phone system.

Regardless of the voice mail/auto attendant system, the phone system must be configured so that the VM/AA ports are arranged in a hunt group. If the CO lines are only programmed to ring to one of them, then only one call can be answered at a time.

Ed Vaughn, MBSWWYPBX