In this paper, a method to design the sending loudness rating(SLR) is proposed and the desirable transmission characteristics are considered in order to specify the transmission quality, based on the loudness ratings, for the digital telephone system that is a terminal for digital speech communication. To specify the desirable SLR for digital telephone system, the subjective test defining the preferred range of inout level for CODEC was performed. From the test results, it was identified that the optimal input level for CODEC is -15dB and the range not to cause the quantization noise and the distortion of CODEC fall within -12dB and -18dB.