Abstract: A base station for use in a subscriber communication network for communicating signals between subscriber stations and an external communication network having a plurality of ports includes a communication circuit for enabling simultaneous communications between a plurality of the ports and a plurality of the subscriber stations over a given communication channel having multiple sequentially repetitive time slots; an exchange for connecting the communication circuit to the external communication network ports; and a remote-connection processor coupled to the communication circuit by the exchange and by a base-station control channel occupying a selected one of the time slots for monitoring the status of the other time slots and for causing the communication circuit and the exchange to complete a connection between a given external communication network port and a given subscriber station over a time slot assigned in response to the monitored status in accordance with a predetermined assignment routine.