1. In a communication system that transmits text messages to mobile terminals, a mobile terminal comprising: a receiver that receives voice and text messages over an RF channel; a text-to-speech (TTS) converter that employs a low complexity phonetic TTS algorithm; a speech decoder; and a switch that operates to selectively provide decoded data to the TTS converter or the speech decoder, wherein decoded data comprising a text message is provided to the TTS converter and decoded data comprising voice data is provided to the speech decoder.