In telecommunication, the term terminal equipment has the following meanings:

1. Communications equipment at either end of a communications link, used to permit the stations involved to accomplish the mission for which the link was established.

2. In radio-relay systems, equipment used at points where data are inserted or derived, as distinct from equipment used only to relay a reconstituted signal.

3. Telephone and telegraph switchboards and other centrally located equipment at which communications circuits are terminated.

Source: From Federal Standard 1037C