Plugged In: Canada Telcos Feel Y2K Bug Swatted Away

By Lydia Zajc, Reuters, 11-16-99 09:13

TORONTO (Reuters) - The companies that Canadians rely on for their phone calls, fax connections and Internet link-ups feel they may have squashed the dreaded Year 2000 computer bug even before its arrival.

Telecommunications and telephone firms in Canada, one of the world's most wired nations, say they are feeling healthy and prepared for the stroke of midnight this year. That's when clocks tick into 2000, a date which outdated computer and component chips could not interpret as greater than 1999.

To save programming time and computer space, many systems read only the last two digits in a year. Widespread fear that the chips would not understand that 00 follows 99 pushed companies into making sure that everyone in today's interlinked society had reprogrammed software and adjusted hardware.

If not, those all-important phone lines could stop humming and go dead.

''The major telcos in Canada are ready,'' said Toronto-based analyst Joe Greene at International Data Corp. Canada. ''They've done all their testing and compliance work.''

GLITCH? LIKELY TOO MANY CALLERS

''There might be some hiccups in the system, but there are hiccups in the system occasionally due to the volume of calls. So on New Year's Eve, maybe any potential glitch might be far too many people calling at midnight to see if everybody's okay,'' Greene concluded.

The head of Nortel Networks Corp., which makes equipment for these types of companies, dismissed the so-called Y2K problem last week at a conference. ''I think we're going to find this is the big nonevent of the millennium,'' said Chief Executive John Roth.

Bell Canada has trumpeted its readiness. The nation's biggest phone company, about 80-percent owned by Canadian telecommunications leviathan BCE Inc., dominates Ontario and Quebec, the largest and most populous provinces.

Bell (www.bell.ca.) and many of the companies have posted their Y2K progress on the Internet to sooth subscribers.

''ARMED TO THE TEETH''

Bell's vice-president of Year 2000 issues, Mike Feldstein, will monitor events from a contingency room in Ottawa on New Year's Eve. ''We're going to be armed to the teeth and ready to go,'' he said.

Unlike last year, when a massive ice storm knocked down lines in parts of Quebec and Ontario, companies can make a preemptive strike by preparing for, instead of reacting to, a disaster, Feldstein said.

In a country like Canada with a population of about 30 million, telecommunications organizations are generally few, large and sophisticated, and closely interlinked.

In 1997 they banded together to create the Canadian Year 2000 Telecommunications Industry Forum which is affiliated with Stentor (www.stentor.ca.), the umbrella co-operation group for provincial major phone concerns from coast to coast.

Members of the forum completed major testing in May and announced major disruptions were banished for the rollover.

The cellular phone networks have worked on Y2K for months, doing testing and then locking down by freezing the systems in place. Contingency plans were drafted to allow for any internal and external disruptions, said Robert McFarlane, chief financial officer at wireless company Clearnet Communications Inc. (www.clearnet.com.).

McFarlane said the companies tested themselves, then rolled the dice on their intermeshed wires and found no problems. And those 911 numbers, for emergencies such as fires, have also been wrapped into the mix, he added.

The telecommunications firms are also dependent on working energy generators and their U.S. partners. McFarlane feels both will be ready.

The companies have already passed a little milestone: the 9th day of the 9th month of 1999, McFarlane said. Once New Year's passes, they will gird themselves for another critical date, February 29th, since 2000 is a leap year.

THIRD WORLD POSES POTENTIAL DANGER

Canadian companies might be up to snuff, but they are eyeing other nations to see whether their systems will turn into pumpkins at the local stroke of midnight.

''There may be some Third World countries that may not be as ready and as compliant as we would like, so that's the only potential danger,'' Greene said.

Any apprehension has focused, McFarlane said, on countries such as South America and Russia which lack the cash to reprogram their systems.

Feldstein said Bell will be ''following the sun'' or watching its international counterparts as the time changes in each zone to ensure Bell has a leg up on solving any problems that might appear.

-- Y2K Pro (y2kpro1@hotmail.com), November 16, 1999

lets try and clean this up for you Pro.

BC Tel seems to have their act together, the billing was changed in the spring and the have claimed compliance.

Just what I need to know, people can still phone me :o)

-- Brian (imager@home.com), November 16, 1999.

Unfortunately Pro,

The key word in this article is "feel"...

I "feel" I am ready for rollover.....

(snicker)

loungin' on the porch...

The Dog

-- Dog (Desert Dog@-sand.com), November 16, 1999.

Sheeesh. Close yer dang tags, "Pro".

-- (.@x...), November 16, 1999.

"McFarlane said the companies tested themselves, then rolled the dice on their intermeshed wires and found no problems. And those 911 numbers, for emergencies such as fires, have also been wrapped into the mix, he added."

'...A lumbering hulk shambles onto the stage, interrrupting McFarlane's speech. A squeal of feedback as the brutish human grabs the microphone from McFarlane's numb hands...' "Me George, Clearnet's IS fix-it-guy. Dice roll just fine, wires screwy. No problems with dice... A large THUD is heard as George drops the mic on the stage and lumbers off thru the curtains."

Nice try Pro, but unfortunately there's no hard facts or figures, only their OPINIONS. How about the numbers of systems that were remediated? Average remediation time? What exactly are their remediation plans? This article begs for clearer information before this little grey rabbit goes for the carrot...

-- Deb M. (vmcclell@columbus.rr.com), November 16, 1999.

Feelings huh? Sure makes me 'feel' a lot better about it. Wake me up when you have something of substance to post, Pro.

-- haha (haha@haha.com), November 16, 1999.

Y2K Pro, they've been done since May, eh? So why's my dh still doing Y2K work at a major telecom co and why are they prohibitting any vacations from now until mid-March? Maybe they're just being doomers, too, and preparing for an unknown situation. *sigh*

-- T the C (tricia_canuck@hotmail.com), November 16, 1999.

Hi Pro.

Nice article, thanks for the post. But can you please post the missing part, where they make a meaningful guarantee about compensation for loss of service should their feelings - god forbid - be less accurate than, say, a bunch of facts. They DO say that... don't they? Thanks!

-- Colin MacDonald (roborogerborg@yahoo.com), November 17, 1999.

BELL Canada on Defining compliance...

Year 2000 compliance generally means that a product or service will be able to process date information accurately as Year 2000 gets underway. As well as other functions, processing generally includes calculating, comparing and sequencing data from, into and between the 20th and 21st centuries, and must include leap-year calculations.

The compliance of one product, of course, is only of practical value when all the systems and products it connects with are also Year 2000 compliant and capable of flawlessly exchanging date information. The status of compliance also usually implies that no unauthorized modifications or additions have been made to the product or service.

But beware. The expression Year 2000 Compliant or similar expressions may be defined differently by different manufacturers and developers of products and services.

-- y2k dave (xsdaa111@hotmail.com), November 17, 1999.

Tricia

If your dh is working on the system I suspect he is, I've noticed it seems to be having a lot of service problems lately.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), November 17, 1999.