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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Related Quotes T WCOM 50 7/8 77 7/16 -13/16 -3 13/16 delayed 20 mins - disclaimer Monday August 9, 3:54 pm Eastern Time MCI WorldCom suffered 4-day problem on data network NEW YORK, Aug 9 (Reuters) - MCI WorldCom Inc. (Nasdaq:WCOM - news), the No. 2 U.S. long distance company, has suffered service disruptions and traffic delays for four days on its frame relay network, which transmits data at high speeds for businesses.

``We currently have an extensive upgrade of our high-speed global frame relay network ongoing. And during the upgrade, some customers have experienced some congestion and some service interruptions,'' said MCI WorldCom spokeswoman Linda Laughlin.

MCI WorldCom said the problems began on Friday and continued through Monday.The cause was not immediately known.

MCI WorldCom's frame relay problem was less severe than a massive frame relay outage at rival AT&T Corp. (NYSE:T - news) more than a year ago, analysts said.

Frame relay is a high-speed packet data networking technology used by businesses that need to exchange large amounts of computer information in short and frequent bursts.

MCI WorldCom said less than 15 percent of its frame relay customer base was affected, but it declined to provide a specific number. An MCI WorldCom customer, who declined to be named, said the company told him that about 70,000 customers nationwide were affected by the problem.

``We effectively had no network for the entire weekend...it's still not reliable enough to use,'' the customer said.

MCI WorldCom told customers 70 trunk lines were down and 16 switches, which direct traffic over the network, needed to be reset, the customer said.

MCI WorldCom denied rumors that its network completely collapsed but it acknowledged the network was slow or congested over the weekend in high-traffic areas, such as in the northeastern United States.

Some customers may still be experiencing problems on Monday but MCI WorldCom said it is working to resolve the slowdowns.

``The congestion has eased. The network is stable and they are still working to make sure that the switches -- where they saw the high-volume congestion -- that those switches continue to remain stable,'' Laughlin said.

MCI WorldCom said any compensation or price adjustments for customers would depend on the client's specific service contract.

Shares of MCI WorldCom fell 4-7/16 to 76-13/16 in heavy trading on Nasdaq.

-- Mike Lang (webflier@erols.com), August 09, 1999

Answers

MCI serves much of the AOL network. It has been totally sucky the past few days. Today has been nearly impossible. Horrible,

-- Mara Wayne (MaraWAyne@aol.com), August 09, 1999.

It's Y2K, all right; another article confirmed it earlier.

8/10/99 -- 6:46 PM

CHICAGO (AP) - A glitch in MCI WorldCom Inc.'s data transmission network has partially disabled thousands of automated teller machines and restricted market trading of corn, soybeans and other financial futures.

The problem at the No. 2 U.S. long-distance carrier began late last week during a system upgrade and has disrupted high-speed data service for nearly 30 percent of MCI's global data network customers, spokeswoman Linda Laughlin said Tuesday.

As a result, ATMs nationwide - and in some cases outside the United States - have had intermittent trouble dispensing money because the bank machines couldn't communicate with each other, making it impossible to determine the customer's balance.
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-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), August 10, 1999.