MIC Network Problem Cripples Some ATMs, Data Services

For Educational/Discussion Purposes Only

8/11/99 -- 12:01 AM

CHICAGO (AP) - MCI WorldCom Inc. could suffer a setback in efforts to draw customers to lucrative high-speed data and Internet services after a glitch in its network kept customers from transferring information and partially disabled thousands of automated teller machines.

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.

MCI was upgrading network software from Lucent Technologies Inc., a former AT&T Corp. subsidiary, when the system began experiencing problems in large cities such as New York, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

As a result, ATMs nationwide - and in some cases outside the United States - had intermittent trouble dispensing money because the bank machines couldn't communicate with each other, making it impossible to determine the customer's balance.

MCI technicians identified a software problem in the Lucent switches and were taking steps to fix the glitch, spokesman Frank Walter said late Tuesday. He said service was gradually being restored to customers, but he did not have an estimate on when operations would return to normal.

``We obviously regret the problems our customers have experienced, and we're working hard very hard to rebuild their confidence,'' Walter said.

ATM networks have not been able to determine the number of machines affected because many of the disruptions are only short-term, said Kate Coleman, a spokeswoman for Chicago-based Cash Station, which operates ATMs mainly in the Midwest.

Chicago Board of Trade president Thomas Donovan issued a stinging rebuke of MCI after the disruption shut down electronic trading terminals across the globe.

Days before the outage, Donovan said he had met with executives from the communications company to complain about the quality of service and said he'd been promised things would improve.

``Despite these assurances, we began experiencing a catastrophic outage because of MCI WorldCom just two days later,'' Donovan said in a letter sent Tuesday to members of the world's largest futures exchange.

The CBOT's Project A electronic trading platform allows members to trade futures contracts linked to U.S. Treasuries, the Dow Jones industrial average, grains and other commodities. The exchange, which also maintains open outcry trading pits, was able to keep terminals inside the building running through a local network.

The exchange said normal trading was restored Tuesday afternoon.

MCI's problems come at a time the company is launching a $100 million program to build data centers and expand its existing facilities in an attempt to lure more customers to its burgeoning data and Internet businesses.

The problem is reminiscent of an outage in AT&T Corp.'s network last April, which affected thousands of corporate customers nationwide. AT&T blamed the outage on problems that occurred during a similar software upgrade.

-- flb (fben4077@yahoo.com), August 11, 1999

Answers

Maria - any comments?

-- comments please (comments please@commentsss.com), August 11, 1999.

See previous thread on this:

MCI outages down ATMs, data transfer and futures markets

-- (abc@def.ghi), August 11, 1999.

FYI - I saw a short 4-5 second blurb about this on the ABC Evening News last night (8/10/1999). It was real quick and nested just before the stock market quotes as they went to commercial.

-- Jim (x@x.x), August 11, 1999.

I'm re-posting something I wrote on Silicon Investor in response to someone who was originally pretty dismissive about the whole deal ...

<I wonder what effect this disruption has had on commodities pricing??>

Who knows? I'm sure someone knows. It had to have made some impact. They just aren't making it public.

<Is it part of the reason for some of the movement in the CRB and pressure on the T-bills??>

Who knows? Media's pretty much kept a lid on this whole thing so far. I can understand if it was a one day deal. But, from last Thursday thru this Tuesday??? Give me a break.

Transactions were supposed to resume at 2:15PM this afternoon at COBT. Wonder if Wall Street was keeping eye on situation? When did market turn-around and rally today? Maybe just a coincidence.

<It is interesting, but I guess my point was, no matter how severe the disruption has been, it has not brought entire markets to a halt in such a way that the news media can ignore the cause/effect.>

Really? News media can't ignore this? Hmmm - Guess I don't trust them as much as you do.

<Actually, I'm pretty amazed that there hasn't been more news coverage.>

Me too. Considering CNBC coverage when Ebay's down. When E-trade's down. When Ameritrade's down ...

But MCI's network's down for up to a third of their business customers ... and not a peep.

You'd think it would be a "newsworthy" item ... those outages/disruptions at Chicago Board of Trade ... from Thursday thru most of Tuesday ... wouldn't you?

MCI's price drops Friday, Monday ... and all CNBC can attribute it to is that rate reduction of theirs? Give me a break.

Did you see that CBOT is planning on seeking redress from MCI WorldCom? And other business customers can to, depending on terms of contract.

MCI WORLDCOM MELTDOWN SLAMS TRADERS Network woes continue as Chicago Board of Trade has been crippled since last Thursday ... http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,1015926,00.html

I wonder if GPS end-of-week rollover problems August 21 will affect telecoms? It's a real wildcard. We'll find out soon enough, won't we?

Cheryl 142 Days until 2000

P.S. I just heard on CNBC that 90% of hospitals are still waiting for Y2K software upgrades. WHEW - High percentage. Surprised at that CNBC segment. No more laughing anymore.

-- Cheryl (Transplant@Oregon.com), August 11, 1999.

OFF TOPIC: Sort of.

IRIDIUM LLC, which runs the first global satellite-telephone network, is 86 percent-owned by 19 investors, which also include Lockheed Martin Corp., Raytheon Co., Sprint Corp. and American International Group Inc .... [Motorola's involved too.]

How many satellites did they launch this past year that went KABOOM?

I just heard more bad news today on CNBC: 2) DJN 14:21 *DJ Iridium Says Defaulted On $800M, $750M Credit Facilities 3) DJN 14:21 +DJ Iridium: Bank Waiver Of $800M Credit Expired Wed >IRID 4) BN 14:17 *IRIDIUM DEFAULTS UNDER CREDIT FACILITIES :IRID US

I sure wish I took Anthony@Pacific's advice yesterday to short IRID when it was@6.

Ooooooooooooh - look at this chart: http://www.techstocks.com/research/chart.gsp?period=120&time=month&cha rt=line&chart1=ma&i0=1&i1=0&i2=0&i3=0&scale=linear&s=IRID ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -------

This GPS deal on August 21 is becoming more worrisome to me. I sure hope that none of IRID's global satellites up there right now ... have that end-of-week roll-over problem. Can you imagine what it would do to Internet stock prices ... and on-line trading ... and even "off-line" trading ... if we have problems with telecoms?

-- Cheryl (Transplant@Oregon.com), August 11, 1999.

Maaarrrmmmmmmmmmmmmmaaaaaaaaa, where are youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu??

Fliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnttt, where are youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu??

Anita Spooner, where are you?

-- George (jvilches@sminter.com.ar), August 11, 1999.