The present invention relates to a
telecommunications system and method for connecting to a network and for routing data of a plurality of different data types between the network and subscriber terminals of the
telecommunications system. The subscriber terminals are connectable to a central terminal of the
telecommunications system via a
transmission medium, the telecommunications system providing a number of communication channels arranged to utilize the
transmission medium for transmission of data between the central terminal and the subscriber terminals. The telecommunications system comprises a
transmitter having first transmission
processing logic for employing a first transport mechanism to transmit data and second transmission
processing logic for employing a second transport mechanism to transmit data. A switching element is then provided for routing data for transmission to either the first or second transmission
processing logic dependent on first predetermined criteria, the first predetermined criteria comprising at least the
data type of the data for transmission. In addition, a
resource allocation logic is provided for determining based on second predetermined criteria which of the communication channels to allocate for use by the first transmission processing logic, and which of the communication channels to allocate for use by the second transmission processing logic. This approach provides a very flexible transmission mechanism for improving the efficiency of transmission of data through the telecommunications system.