Mike Buetow asked:

>Has anyone heard of a designation/certification called BATB?
>What does this stand for, and what's the process for obtaining it?

Think so. You must mean BABT =  British Approvals Board for Telecommunications

Claremont House
34 Molesey Road
Hersham
Walton on Thames
Surrey, England
KT12 4RQ

(0932) 222289
(0932) 229756 FAX


They are sort of the UK Bellcore, except I think they are more of a
governmental arm. They control the approval of what equipment can be
connected or used on public switched telephone networks. They also have
some sort of design/manufacturing/quality system review which requires a
visit and audit by their people. If you want to sell your telecom carrier
or switch equipment in jolly old England or certain other UK dominions
(including Hong Kong, I think), you will need to deal with them. As I
recall, we had to get their approval on a cell phone we made at Fujitsu.

The primary standard is:

BS 6305 (1992) General Requirements for Apparatus for Connection to Public
Switched Telephone Networks Run By Certain Public Telecommunication
Operators

- which can be ordered ($125) in the US from Compliance Engineering
Magazine 508-681-6673

BABT 340 is the QA specification which may be overlapped to some extent by
ISO-9000.

I do not have a copy of either myself, but I think the procedure is
described in the document.

cheerio,

Jerry Cupples
Interphase Corporation
Dallas, TX USA