MECOBS stands for mechanized Cord Board System. The 1st one (I think) was developed by IBM in Boise, Id late 70's or early 80's. I was a trainer in Operator Services when we switched from tickets to this computer system which replaced the tickets on almost all calls (foreign country calls, Toll stations, ring downs ect... still required tickets. Our older operators who had years of service absolutely hated the changeover. The only other changeover they disliked worse was going from Directory Assistant telephone books to microfiche!