It''s what executives of SBC Communications Inc. call their vision for the future: combining voicemail, e-mail and incoming fax messages in one system that can be accessed on the Web or on the phone.

The San Antonio-based company was expected to announce Monday that it is melding home and wireless voicemail and the other components to eliminate having to check messages on multiple systems.

"It brings together what had previously been four separate sets of messages," Donna Harrison, SBC''s vice president of product marketing for voice services, told The Dallas Morning News in Monday''s editions.

For the nation''s second biggest local phone company, which still makes most of its money from old-fashioned residential service, profits have tumbled in recent years as millions of customers switched to rivals and millions more began using cell phones.

SBC''s Unified Communications plan is designed to help answer that challenge. The service could be most appealing to customers who buy the phone company''s most comprehensive, and expensive, All Distance packages.

Although telecommunications executives and visionaries have long promised unified messaging systems, they have only now become a reality. Such systems are a key feature of voice over Internet protocol services sold by companies such as Vonage Holdings Corp. and AT&T Corp.

The SBC bundles, starting at $48.95 a month, will include local and long-distance service. Cellular service from Cingular Wireless may also be added.

For All Distance customers, Unified Communications will cost $3 a month if a cellular plan is included and $1 if it isn''t. It will be $12.95 a month for customers who don''t buy the big bundles.

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