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core and eight star quads. These cables provide one TV channel or 900 telephone channels on the coaxial tubes and 480 telephone channels on the state quads. The remaining section of the ring, Biesenthal-Oranienburg-Potsdam, is composed of multiconductor cables; some contain 97 pairs, and some are quadded for carrier-frequency (CF) operation. Cables connect the main long-distance center on Dottistrasse and the Wilhelmstrasse exchange to the East Berlin Ring at Strausberg, Biesenthal, Oranienburg, Potsdam, Zeuthen, and other points. Alternate routes are thus provided if East Berlin switching centers should become inoperative.

The principal routes beyond the East Berlin Ring consists of southern and northern loops that converge at points on the coaxial cable between Magdeburg and Gueldendorf. The southern loop has twin coaxial cables linking Magdeburg, Halle, and Leipzig. Elsewhere on the southern loop, Leipzig, Karl-Marx-Stadt, Dresden, Cottbus, and Gueldendorf are connected by twin eight-pair multiconductor cables. District capitals Gera, Erfurt, and Suhl are connected to the southern loop by a separate outer loop consisting of a variety of multiconductor cables, some of which are carrier-equipped for up to 12 telephone channels. The northern loop begins at Gueldendorf and includes Eberswalde, Neubrandenburg, Stralsund, Rostock, Schwerin, Stendal, and Magdeburg. Most of the cables along this route have eight to 10 pairs, some connected in quads, and are equipped with 60-channel carrier apparatus. East Berlin has the heavies concentration of telephones. The main exchange, housing two 6,000-line exchanges is located on Dottistrasse, the second largest exchange is in Leipzig.

International telecom connections are provided by coaxial, multiconductor, and submarine cables; open-wire lines; radio-relay links, and radiocommunication facilities. These facilities are interconnected with domestic networks through principal international switching centers in Dresden, East Berlin, Karl-Marx-Stadt, Leipzig, and Rostock. Submarine cables provide telephone and telegraph circuits to Denmark and Sweden. A four-tube coaxial cable interconnecting East Germany with Czechoslovakia, Poland, and the U.S.S.R. is in operation along the route East Berlin-Dresden-Prague-Brno-Katowice-Warsaw-Kiev-Moscow. Two of the tubes are being used to exchange TV programs in the Intervision network, and 60-channel CF equipment provides 360 speech channels. The two remaining tubes have a design capacity of 900 duplex speech channels.

Civil communications between East Germany and West Germany are routed through the Leipzig exchange and are currently limited to 75 telephone and 35 telex channels. East Germany has direct telegraph channels in 22 countries and West Berlin. The international automatic public telegraph (CENTEX) exchange in East Berlin has direct channels to all Warsaw Pact capitals. Fully automatic telex links are available with Budapest, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Moscow, Prague, Sofia, Vienna, Warsaw, and Zurich, and semiautomatic links are in use with Amsterdam, Belgrade, Brussels, Bucharest, Milan, Oslo, and Paris.

Interchange of East Bloc Intervision programs with the West European Eurovision program is made via the Brocken relay station. International programs are also exchanged over the four-tube coaxial Friendship cable that joins East Berlin, Prague, Katowice, and Moscow.

The Ministry for State Security operates high-frequency radio transmitting and receiving stations. These stations have a worldwide range and are used for communicating with agents, radio monitoring, and administrative purposes.

The Group of Soviet Forces in Germany (GSFG) maintains and operates its own open-wire network. The network connects all Soviet installations in East Germany, and trunk routes are available to the Northern Group of Forces (NGF) headquarters in Legnica, Poland, and back to the Soviet Union. Since 1967 the Soviets have constructed the GSFG Area Communications System (GACS), a fixed microwave radio-relay network of 24 stations whose equipment is housed in underground bunkers. A twin-dish tropospheric-scatter terminal, at Zossen-Zehuensdorf, is linked by radio-relay to the NGF, the Central Group of Forces (CGF) headquarters in Milovice, Czechoslovakia, and the Soviet Union. The main GSFG transmitting station is located at Saalow, 7 kilometers west of Zossen.

The East German power system operates a nationwide telecom network over the national power distribution grid.

The East German Socialist Unity Party (SED) maintains and operates a microwave radio-relay network which connects the national headquarters in East Berlin with the party's district (Bezirk) and county (Kreis) offices. The relay network is routed via 67 well-guarded brick or concrete towers that contain RVG-924 and RVG-934 equipment providing eight and 24 telephone channels, respectively.

Communications of the East German Armed Forces are mainly over CF channels in MPT cables. The

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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R00020011022-9