December 1999 
 

Minnesota's telecommunications industry is Y2K ready
Consumers asked to refrain from checking for "dial tone"

About this time last year, most conversations, meetings and media reports that focused on the Y2K computer bug were not too uplifting. Some might say they were even pessimistic, if not alarming - predicting a bleak, chaotic world in which computers crashed, electric appliances would not work, telephones would not ring and ATM machines kept the money to themselves. Now, however, most reports are more positive, advising preparation similar to that of a typical Minnesota snowstorm. In fact, telecommunications companies' biggest concern now is that so many people will pick up their phones after midnight on January 1 to check for a dial tone or make "Happy Millennium" calls that the public-switched network may become overloaded.

All this leads to the basic question: Are Minnesota's telephone companies - and the rest of the industry - ready for Y2K? Chris Gilchrist, a Minnesota Department of Commerce spokesperson, says, "I think the industry's relatively well-prepared for Y2K." Tests by the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS), whose members include local phone companies, are even more positive. These tests show that the public-switched network is ready for the arrival of the new millennium. A recent FCC report also found that the nation's large telcos were well prepared.

The state's local phone companies, which have been working on Y2K for years, have spent $42 million preparing for Y2K, and that figure doesn't include state costs for U S WEST or GTE, two of Minnesota's largest local service providers.

(Note: One advantage for the telephone network is that phone calls are not time and date sensitive. America's call-switching equipment is the most complex network of computers in the world, and relies on a highly sophisticated system of synchronization to keep the billions of daily calls from "bumping" into each other. But the synchronization doesn't rely on dates and the switches don't care what day - or year - it is.)

Here's a look at how three companies doing business in Minnesota handled Y2K.

U S WEST

U S WEST, the state's largest telco, has gone through the same process every company should have followed with Y2K - assessment, remediation, testing and contingency planning - and then told as many people about what they were doing as often as they could in a myriad of ways.

The company set up its Y2K initiative in 1996, putting two senior executives in charge of 150 full-time employees. Another 1,000 employees contributed to the effort. By the end of this year, U S WEST will have spent about $200 million addressing Y2K in its 14-state service area. In addition to asking its vendors "How sure are you?" about equipment they supplied to U S WEST, the company has completed 3,000 upgrades to its 1,400 switches to make sure they're ready. In addition, the company has completed upgrades to more than 500 systems that support business operations (billing, repair, etc.) - systems which are time/date sensitive - to make them Y2K-compliant.

Testing has been a big part of U S WEST's Y2K program. The company worked with other local providers through the Telco Year 2000 Forum to run 2,000 test cases on 54 configurations of network equipment in 1998. The handful of issues revealed by that testing, none of which would have affected service, have been resolved.

U S WEST's Y2K communications efforts continue to include newspaper ads, bill inserts, news releases, media interviews, and community presentations. The company's Web site also provides Y2K information, including company status reports, tips for customers and answers to frequently asked questions. Customers can still get Y2K information from the company's toll-free customer hotline (800-800-8011). And they can "Call the 21st Century" using a special free number (877-TEST Y2K) to "talk" to equipment that "thinks" it's operating in the year 2000. "This demonstration should help reassure customers that the telephone network doesn't rely on date or time information to process calls," William White, executive director of U S WEST's Year 2000 Project, said earlier this year.

"We're confident all our businesses are ready," says U S WEST spokesperson Kim Bothun. "We fully expect the phones to ring on New Year's Day." Even though the risk of problems is very low, U S WEST and other telcos have made contingency plans. In addition to staffing New Year's Eve command centers, the company's plan includes "maintaining network performance and business continuity under unusual circumstances using the skills and time-tested recovery processes we've gained in past emergencies," says Bothun.

Sprint

For Sprint, one of the state's four largest local telcos, it would be easy to repeat what was written about U S WEST. Sprint also started working on Y2K in 1996, made it a top corporate priority by creating a dedicated team to work on the process, and has also completed what it calls its five-phase Y2K process (inventory, assessment, renovation, testing, deployment). The company has upgraded its network and all systems that affect customers. It also worked with ATIS and the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Network Reliability and Interoperability Council. Internationally, Sprint is working with the International Telecommunications Union's Year 2000 Task Force.

Sprint also has a contingency plan and used several communication tools - including presentations, bill inserts, news releases, and its Web site - to keep city and county officials, communities, businesses and residential customers informed about the company's Y2K effort.

Paul Bunyan Rural Telephone Cooperative

Headquartered in Bemidji, Paul Bunyan Rural Telephone Cooperative represents many of Minnesota's smaller telcos who did not take Y2K lightly. Advanced services manager Gary Johnson was appointed to head a Y2K team two years ago. He's overseen checks of about 1,000 devices and systems ("from multi-million dollar network systems to credit card readers") and hopes he made his last report on the subject to the co-op's board in October. Most of Paul Bunyan's equipment was already fairly new, so only two pieces needed replacing in addition to some software upgrades. Paul Bunyan provides Internet and high-speed digital services as well as local phone service.

The co-op tested smaller systems itself, but relied on field testing of larger, expensive systems by industry associations (National Telephone Cooperatives Association, United States Telecom Association) and independent organizations like the FCC.

While consumers may worry about Y2K power outages, they won't affect phones at all because key systems are fed by direct current from batteries backed up by generators. "The industry is always prepared if the power goes out," explains Johnson. The co-op's contingency plan includes having technicians at strategic locations on New Year's Eve with wireless phones. If they have any problems, technicians can communicate with law enforcement officials over hand-held radios. As for other small telcos in Minnesota, most of which are smaller that Paul Bunyan, Johnson obviously can't guarantee what they've done, but he says that "the tone from people with other small companies I've talked to is the same as ours."

Consumer Consideration Needed on New Year's Day

The public-switched network wasn't designed to handle a high percentage of phones in use at the same time. So if too many people try to make calls Jan. 1 - or just check for a dial tone, which also activates the system - then the network could be overloaded. To ease the situation, and to help those who have an urgent need to call, the industry suggests that people:

- Stay off the phone for a while if there's no dial tone or a "try again later" message. Minimize the use of modems and don't click the phone on and off because such signals help overload the network.

- Don't call 9-1-1 to see if it's working. This may lead to an unnecessary emergency dispatch. Consumers should have local 7- or 10-digit emergency numbers available if needed.

- Have a "regular" phone with a phone cord available if cordless phones don't work.

PROFILE: Sprint in Minnesota

Founded in 1899 as the Brown Telephone company in Abilene, Kansas, Sprint is celebrating its centennial by donating $1,000 to 100 communities around the country where it provides local phone service. Its local phone operations in Minnesota, one of the state's four largest, has 163,000 customer lines. Half of these are located in Twin Cities suburbs like Chaska, Osseo, Hastings, Victoria and Rogers. A sampling of other cities served by the company includes Aitkin, Alexandria, Benson, Glencoe, Granite Falls, Grove City, Lake City, St. James, St. Michael and Waconia.

Sprint has more than 600 employees in Minnesota and paid $300,000 in state and local taxes last year. Its '98 revenues were $102 million. Committed to doing business in Minnesota, the corporation has made $127 million worth of capital investments here over the last five years.

With all its local central offices digital and a fiber optic network, Sprint can provide its customers with the latest in services. In addition to local service, the company also provides long distance and PCS wireless services, a full range of video and data products, plus telephone equipment and directory publishing. Over three-fourths of its customers now have access to ISDN (integrated services digital network), which can transmit voice, data, graphics and video over the same phone line simultaneously. Nationally, Sprint's local phone companies serve 7.4 million people and its PCS network has approximately 3.5 million customers.

A good corporate citizen in the communities it serves, Sprint and its employees, through matching gift programs, contributed more than $66,000 to civic, charitable, educational and cultural organizations last year.