Abstract: In the transmission of speech in mobile telephone services where mobile handsets cooperate with a base station via a radio link, the base station being connected to a mobile switching center which, in turn, is connected to a public network, communication between the handsets and base stations is achieved using a standard selected to minimize bandwidth utilization. Sample standards are GSM and DECT. It has currently been proposed that in utilizing either of these standards a number of encoded speech channels will be multiplexed at the A interface between the base station and the MSC. The multiplex signal would then be converted to a 64 kb/s format at the interface between the MSC and the public network to which the MSC is connected. This proposal has a number of disadvantages.