Perceived Y2K problems

Wed Dec 1 15:34:27 UTC 1999

The site to go to in order to get priority circuits is
The Telecommunications Service Priority Program
http://tsp.ncs.gov/
Any federal agency, including the FCC, can act as a sponsor.

Information on the readiness of telecommunications can be found on the FCC's
website www.fcc.gov/year2000/
The latest FCC Report, issued in October 1999, can be found at
http://www.fcc.gov/year2000/telephoneb.html
The latest NRIC Report, issued in November 1999, can be found at
http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Miscellaneous/News_Releases/1999/nrmc9074.html
The introduction to the NRIC Report states

"Washington, D.C. - November 9, 1999, - The U.S. Telecommunications Industry
is virtually complete with its Year 2000 remediation and implementation
programs and local and long distance services are expected to continue to
function on and after January 1, 2000.

In its latest, public report to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC),
the Network Reliability and Interoperability Council (NRIC) IV announced
that, based on input from telecommunications companies across the U.S., 100
percent of the switches, network elements and supporting software systems in
the U.S. Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), owned by large, Local
Exchange Carriers (LECs) and large, long distance Inter-Exchange Carriers
(IXCs), have been made Y2K ready. While small- and mid-sized LECs trail
their larger LEC counterparts in achieving Y2K readiness, the NRIC reported
that most of these carriers should be compliant by the end of December
1999."

NRIC has created a guide to contingency planning.  This is a simple guide
which can be followed by any communications network, including Internet
networks.  It is available for you to freely download and use.  The guide
can be found on the Focus Group I website
http://www.nric.org/fg/fg1/index.html  Look under subcommittee 3 for a
collection of documents.  You specifically want:
"5.NRIC Contingency Planning Guidelines: A step-by-step guide that takes the
user from the identification of critical business functions and
infrastructure to the identification of high risk Y2K scenarios to the
development and testing of contingency planning strategies and plans.
(nric-cp-guide.doc, revised 1999-01-14, 461kB)"

And yes, one of the messages of NRIC, the FCC, and the White House is please
do not simply pick up your phone at midnight to see if there is dial tone.

Robert Cannon
Senior Counsel
Office of Plans and Policy
Federal Communications Commission
rcannon at fcc.gov

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