Accordingly, assembly in the USSR of Western computerized telephone exchanges is currently proscribed by COCOM.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center for Security Policy | Alcatel��s Soviet Joint Venture: A Sale The West Cannot Afford To Make

In 1984, on the grounds that the USSR would shortly develop an indigenous capability to manufacture computerized telephone exchanges, the United States reluctantly agreed in COCOM to decontrol on September 15, 1988, the outright sale of certain computerized telephone exchanges to the Soviet bloc.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center for Security Policy | Alcatel��s Soviet Joint Venture: A Sale The West Cannot Afford To Make

When computerized dialing systems were introduced, they replaced the need for manual telephone switchboards and, consequently, the switchboard operators that ran them.

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