NTT (Japan) Announces Critical-Systems Testing Completion

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

Just a few hours ago, NTT (Japan's domestic telecommunication provider) announced that their critical systems are y2k remediated and tested. The noncritical systems are being audited now. This is good news.

All international calls and providers still use NTT's lines domestically and inter-operability testing still does look good. Internet provider connections are listed as a sector needing more work. But... kudos to NTT as the base provider for all telecommunications.

I've consistantly said that NTT is technically the best telecommunications company in the world. This confirms what I've been saying for a long time about 4 digit dates being used for a decade at many of Japan's largest companies.

-----------------------------

Wednesday, July 28, 1999

NTT: Y2K Testing Complete For All Critical Systems

TOKYO (Dow Jones)--Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp. (9432) announced Wednesday that it had finished testing all critical computer systems for potential year 2000 problems and drawing up a set of contingency plans by the end of June.

In addition to testing the 155 systems NTT identified as being critical to maintaining communications services, the company said it will complete a full audit of about 500 systems by the end of July.

A spokesman for NTT Comware Corp., an NTT unit charged with dealing with the Y2K problem, said that no critical problems have been encountered in the audits so far and that NTT is confident of 100% Y2K compliance. "A breakdown of the phone system will not happen," the spokesman asserted.

NTT's contingency plans call for about 3,200 staff to be on stand-by to deal with possible emergencies on the critical dates of December 31, 1999 through January 1, 2000.

NTT said that inter-operability tests with other carriers are underway. However tests for only four of the 61 other carriers targeted have been completed. The company hopes to complete all inter-operability testing by the end of September. A spokesman indicated that support for Internet service providers had been identified as a potential problem area.

The company launched its Y2K compliance program in March 1995, with a budget of Y4 billion. A spokesman for NTT Comware said that this budget had been exceeded because projects related to Y2K compliance had been rolled into work associated with the creation of separate computer systems in preparation for the reorganization of NTT into four companies on July 1.

The spokesman declined to say how great the extra costs were likely to be. But he said that NTT's Y2K compliance costs were comparatively low compared to those of many large overseas carriers because most of NTT's systems networks set up in the 1980s were programmed with four digits rather than two which is the root cause of the Y2K problem.

-------------------------------

-- PNG (Peter Gauthier) (png@gol.com), July 28, 1999

Answers

A small fix... I mean't to type on line 4 that "...inter-operability testing does not look good."

-- PNG (Peter Gauthier) (png@gol.com), July 28, 1999.

Moderation questions? read the FAQ