Mr. Wilferd had an interesting conversation today with the AT&T service rep who handles the account where Mr. Wilferd works. (Mr. Wilferd is a WAN (Wide Area Network) Manager with 115 sites globally).

In discussing some service issues with the network and the possibility of adding network locations due to company acquisition, Mr. Wilferd was told that beginning December 28, 1999, AT&T is going to suspend provisioning (ie., implementation) of any new frame relay, point-to-point connectivity, etc. When Mr. Wilferd asked when provisioning would resume, he was informed that it was an "open-ended" date for new circuits, ie., 'they' don't know. When the service rep was asked what he thought about *that*, he told Mr. Wilferd that he had recently gone out and bought 2,000 rounds of 7.62.

Mr. Wilferd has talked with this service rep off and on over the course of a year, and this guy is a GI, big time. Many, many months worth of preps, rural location...

-- Wilferd (WilferdW@aol.com), December 22, 1999

Answers

You know Mr. Wilferd,

I hope, just hope this ain't true. Not to say you are not telling the truth. I just hope this deal ain't true.

Sheesh, ugly, ugly, ugly.

-- the Virginian (1@1.com), December 22, 1999.

Virginian,

Nope, that's what was really said. Mr. Wilferd has no axes to grind with anyone, and wouldn't relay this if it hadn't happened.

Mr. Wilferd comes home really pale most nights nowadays...and goes upstairs to inventory the preps....

-- Wilferd (WilferdW@aol.com), December 22, 1999.

It doesn't look good. Time is running out. The lies are about to come home to roost, if they can't make good on the billing remediation and equipment systems.

-- snooze button (alarmclock_2000@yahoo.com), December 22, 1999.

I never received the AT&T (long distance) portion of my phone bill this month, 1st time that happened..

-- INever (inevercheckmy@onebox.com), December 23, 1999.

This stuff gives me the willies. I never take anything to heart unless I have sufficient evidence. I guess the proving grounds are right around the corner though. My motto ? Better safe, than sorry !

-- Rob (maxovrdrv51@hotmail.com), December 23, 1999.

Hey Wilferd,

Ask him if it said something like this:

In order to protect against potential Y2K service disruptions, we are=20 instituting a special "Blackout" policy from Wednesday at 12:01 am,=20 December 29, 1999 to Wednesday at 12:01 am, January 5, 2000.

Please be advised that during this Blackout Period, AT&T will not be=20 performing service or network provisioning, scheduled maintenance, or=20 changes to Service options. These activities include, but are not = limited=20 to, the following:

Managed Router Packet Filters News Groups Usage Reports Domain Name System Domain Name Provisioning Tool (DPT) Managed Routers - BGP and Static IP Blocks Circuits Managed Firewall

Activities necessary to resolve actual or potential service or customer=20 affecting incidents and fraud protection will continue in a normal = course=20 of business.

Seems prudent, don't you think?

-- PO'd (mightbe@critt.com), December 23, 1999.

standard y2k freeze, dood. don't make changes around rollover. (everyone's doin it.)

-- Mori-Nu (silkenet@yahoo.com), December 23, 1999.

Phone networks hold together by a combination of hard work, guesstimation and good old fashioned luck at the best of times. I should know, I'm a phone switch software engineer.

No? Explain why it took my home carrier 4 working days to figure out that I was getting a "no service" tone because they'd allocated my number to another subscriber - just for a laugh, I assume.

Oh, here's another laugh. One of our customers, a power company, has just been given an emergency loan of a phone system from our development lab. It's going into one of their call centres for Y2K.

The punchline: we were using it to try and fix Y2K problems. Now we've got no systems of that type left, and we can't get one until well into January (at least), because the customers get priority.

Ha. Ha. Ha.

-- Servant (public_service@yahoo.com), December 23, 1999.

And whatever you people do......do NOT pick up your phones at midnight New Year's Eve. We were told on the Wichita evening news that this could create "dial-tone overload". So, if I DOOOOO decide to check our phone at midnight, would this make me a terrorist?

Or would it fall into the 'self-fulfilling prophecy' category? In that case......I would become a prophet as opposed to a schizophrenic doomer or terrorist. Hmmmmmm

I'll DO it! With a glass of bubbley in my hand......live dangerously and join me in this toast, "To Toast!", raise your recievers high and be counted!

-- Will continue (farming@home.com), December 23, 1999.

The phone systems cannot handle more than 20% of all user at one time. It will be amazing to see just how busy the systems gets in about 8 days.

-- y2k dave (xsdaa111@hotmail.com), December 23, 1999.

I have heard through a high-level contact at work (Y2K Coordinator) that the phone companies are planning to implement a 15-second delay on getting a dial tone during the rollover. This is supposed to discourage many who pick up the phone to see if it's still working on 1/1/00. Don't have any details; sorry...

-- Nabi (nabi7@yahoo.com), December 23, 1999.

Think the delay is already in. Have been getting phone calls from "no body there" for the last week or so. Last night, took a full 3 minutes to get back a dial tone. They've been working out along the main road on the big gray boxes (as opposed to the small ones at each residence) for the past couple weeks. Is there any remediation that has to be done at those main boxes? Only answer from the phone company is "we'll check it out".

By the way, favorite way for thieves to check out your house and see if anyone is there, is to call and hang up if someone answers. They may be just cking to see if someone is home if you get a hang up call.

-- Valkyrie (anon@please.xnet), December 23, 1999.

Mori Nu, somehow I don't think *this* is standard:

When Mr. Wilferd asked when provisioning would resume, he was informed that it was an "open-ended" date for new circuits, ie., 'they' don't know.

One more time. THEY DON'T KNOW when they'll be back in operation????

No, nothing standard about this.

-- OR (orwelliator@biosys.net), December 23, 1999.

that's, like, your opinion man. "they don't know" could mean they will flex the date as necessary, as the situation requires. again, i consider this standard in the context of a y2k freeze.

-- Mori-Nu (silkenet@yahoo.com), December 24, 1999.