Abstract: A network element of a telephone network and method for monitoring connections and receiving data from an incoming leg of a connection and forwarding the data to an outgoing leg of a connection, wherein when the network element observes that both the incoming and outgoing legs of a connection are transmitted via a packet data network to a previous or correspondingly the next element of the telephone network, a release of the previous network element occurs, and an indication of a packet network address corresponding to the next telephone network element is made. The previous network element may then transmit data via the packet data network directly to the next telephone network element.

Abstract: The invention relates to calling subscriber validation in a telecommunications system which is divided into networks governed by at least two different operators and in which at least some of the subscribers connected to the network of a given operator also have access to the network of a neighbouring operator through the network of the given operator. To enable the validation to be carried out economically and with maximum utilization of the network transmission capacity, the network of the neighbouring operator uses a given predetermined node (SW4′) for calling subscriber validation, and the connection setup process is continued in the network of the neighbouring operator from an inter-network link up to the predetermined node in which validation is performed in the connection setup phase.