Is the interface ubiquitous?

And if it were, How would you know?

A recent effort to get phone companies to get rid of the tedious 15-seconds of voicemail instructions prior to the "Beep" seems to think that *everyone* knows how to leave a voicemail:

http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/take-back-the-beep/

But what if they didn't? Are we rushing to exclude older generations just to save 15 seconds of our pricey airtime? How inclusive is that? MUST everything be FASTER?