It has come to my attention that there hasn't been a whole lot said in the media about the status of the major commo companies. Last news I have is from the November 13, 1998 SEC 10Qs, and the bottom line there was "WE'LL be ready, but we can't be sure if our vendors will be, so you can't blame us if we fail. Have a nice day. :)". At least, that's what I got out of it. I'm speaking of AT&T, MCI and Bell Atlantic.

Reason it's on my mind is that there was a few articles in the local paper about last year's ice storm, and one in particular that got me going. It was about flooding and the buisiness of regulating the flow of water on the river. The basic explaination was that "if'n only we cudda got a current weather forecast from the Nat'l Weather Svc, we'd a knowed it was gonna keep raining/snowing, and we'd been able to control the water better. But the dang phones was out, and we just didn't know that the forecast had changed. Know whut I mean?" (I couldn't help wondering why no one had a short-wave for the NOAA weather.)

Anyway, you can see why telephone communications & Y2K are on my mind this morning, can't you?

BTW, I'm sorry for paraphrasing the above in such an unflattering tone. Actually, the gentlemen who were quoted sounded well-spoken. So, the implication that they are idiots is all mine. I'm in a cranky mood. Sorry.

I know that if the grid dies, the phones die. I also know that if the electric companies are up to snuff, and the commo is out, weeelll.....

-- Arewyn (nordic@northnet.net), January 11, 1999

Answers

Take a Monday morning java swig Arewyn for attitude "adjustment." The Y2K "jolt cola" of choice.

Yes, communications is key too. So many dominoes, so little research time!

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), January 11, 1999.

The NRIC (network reliability and interoperability council will be conducting a test this spring with the major players: AT&T, MCI, the bells. Take a look at their web site to find out more. They wouldn't be doing this integration testing if they weren't ready. They have also published a "Contingency Planning Guidelines". For information on telecomm satellites, look at an earlier post from me on commsats. FWIW, I work as a Y2K project manager for one of these companies and I think that there will be a few problems but certainly not any FAILURES.

Troll Maria

-- Maria (anon@ymous.com), January 11, 1999.

According to an analysis done on 3rd Q 1998 SEC filings by Dr. Ed Yardeni, my local service provider BellSouth had only spent $40 million of out of $350 million BellSouth expects to spend on Y2K.

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), January 11, 1999.