Abstract: A dial pulse detection system 20 has an analogue input buffer 22, an analogue to digital converter (ADC) 24, a processor 25, and an output buffer 26. Processor 25 operates on the digitally encoded samples produced by ADC 24 from the received signal to achieve detection of the dial pulse signalling data in the received signal. This detection process involves a training process and a recognition process. The training process extracts amplitude and timing characteristics of a first part of the received signal from a dialling instrument. These characteristics are then used to form a template for recognition of subsequent dialled digits. Detected digits are then made available at output buffer 26. Processor 25 includes a facility for sending an error signal to the user to indicate that dialled digits have not been correctly received.