In a move that defies criticisms that it is a selfperpetuating body, the UK Office of Telecommunications watchdog has abolished rules that prevented much public traffic being carried over private telecommunications networks. Many private network users have been unable to carry voice traffic from the public network because of Oftel’s extensive approval regulations contained in its Code of Practice for the Design of Private Telecommunications Branch Networks. The Code governs the approval of call routing and series connecting equipment. But the extensive regulations meant that network users were constrained in the way that they could route calls through the network. Oftel now says that all call routing and seriesconnected apparatus with ports that are approved for connection to private networks may now also carry public traffic. The only condition is that the performance on all paths satisfy the user’s requirements. Although the November 1990 version of the Code has been published, adherence to it is voluntary. The changes mean that public switched telephone network speech may now be carried at low bit rates on circuits such as British Telecommunications Plc’s Kilostream lines.
