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Y2K Expert Rules Out Telecom Breakdown
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Y2K Expert Rules Out Telecom Breakdown
http://nt.excite.com/news/r/990303/02/tech-telecomy2k
MANILA (Reuters) - The world telephone systems are not likely to
collapse by the strike of 2000, but minor glitches might build up if
certain equipment were not upgraded for the millennium bug, a
telecommunications expert said Wednesday.
Ron Balls, chairman of the International Telecommunications Union's
(ITU) Y2K task force, said most telecommunications companies have
made preparations for the year 2000 computer bug.
But he admitted that in a survey conducted by the ITU, a
non-executive association of telecom firms in 180 countries, only 36
percent of 402 polled firms have indicated completion of
millennium-ready systems.
"I certainly do not envisage that you would get a cut-off by
midnight of January 31, 1999. Most people have done all the work, and
if they haven't, the impact would be a gradual degradation, not a
cut-off," Balls told reporters at the sidelines of the second Global
Y2K Summit in Manila.
Balls, who is also the Y2K compliance manager for British Telecom,
said problems would not occur in switches for networking. But
surrounding systems which were not upgraded could trigger a build-up
in network traffic, he said.
"The nature of telecommunications is that most of the year 2000
issues do not affect the switches and cells by and large. It affects
the ... surroundings switches," he said.
"So you may not get alarms coming out of the switch if something
goes wrong. You may not be able to change the configuration switch if
something is wrong.
"If there are parts of the switch going out of service, if there are
parts of transmission equipment losing trunks ... then you can start
to get a gradual degradation in service."
"One of the repercussions of this is if you stop getting some
failures of equipment, you could get a build up of traffic, of
repeated attempts to get to that country, and that repeat attempts
could cause some congestion," he said.
But most operators are used to dealing with that sort of situation,
he said.
Balls could not say if cellular systems would work smoothly when the
new millennium approaches, saying cellular firms have not been
cooperative in providing information to the ITU on their Y2K
readiness.
"I'm sure that most cellular companies have good programs in place.
My concern is they're not communicating that. They're not telling
other companies, fixed operators, and most importantly their
customers, about what they're doing," he said.
--------------
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- Y2K Expert Rules Out Telecom Breakdown
MANILA (Reuters) - The world telephone systems are not likely to
collapse by the strike of 2000, but minor glitches might build up if
certain equipment were not upgraded for the millennium bug, a
telecommunications expert said Wednesday.
- U.S. Local Carriers See No Millenium Bug Problems
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telephone carriers controlling 90 percent of U.S. phone lines found
no disruptions were likely to occur due to year 2000 computer
problems, the companies said Wednesday.
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