methods and apparatus for providing speech recognition capability to callers in a cost efficient manner as part of one or more telephone services are described . multiple speech recognition units with differing capabilities and therefore implementation costs are provided . calls are assigned to speech recognition circuits throughout a call based on a signal such as a service type identifier indicating the type of service to be provided to the caller . during different phases of a call different speech recognition units may be used . in addition , different amounts of speech recognition processing capability may be allocated to service a call at different points during a call . in this manner efficient use of available speech recognition resources can be achieved .