The Federal Communications Commission in
conjunction with the Network Reliability &
Interoperability Council Tuesday released their completed Y2K Communications Sector
Report.
The 129-page publication is intended to help define the
problems posed to communications companies and consumers by the Year 2000
date rollover. The FCC explored how pervasive Y2K problems are, and to
identify industry-specific progress in addressing the issues created by the
programming glitch.
The FCC and NRAC accessed the Y2K preparations of wireline and wireless
telecommunication companies, and broadcast radio, television; cable and
satellite broadcast companies that responded to voluntary and mandatory
surveys.
Overall, the commission reported that they are “encouraged by the progress
being made by the larger companies to prepare for the year 2000, and are
cautiously optimistic about the ability of these companies to withstand
even unforeseen problems with minimum disruptions to the services they
provide.”
Focusing on the positive, the commission noted that “in many industries,
these large companies serve the vast majority of consumers. For example,
over 92 percent of people receive phone service from just 7 local telephone
carriers, and the top 20 local telephone companies serve over 97 percent of
U.S. customers. And while these large telephone companies cannot guarantee
that customers will have no Y2K-related problems, we generally concur with
their assessment that for most of their customers phone service disruptions
will be minor and remedied quickly.”
The commission remains concerned about the smaller telecommunications and
broadcast companies. According to the report, “many of the small-and
medium-size companies that have adopted a systematic approach to addressing
Year 2000 have completion deadlines dangerously close to millennium
rollover, leaving little time for delays from vendors or remediation as a
result of problems discovered in the testing process.”
Whether the small telephone, cable, broadcast or wireless, small companies
have, or have not adopted a systematic approach to addressing Y2K issues
may remain to be seen or heard at midnight, January 1, 2000.
Because global telecommunications rely on seamless interconnection of
various domestic and foreign networks, the international dimensions of the
Y2K problem are especially significant. Although U.S. telecommunications
companies appear to be working diligently to prevent any Y2K disruptions,
the international picture is less certain and the FCC remains concerned
about whether enough is being done on a global basis to ensure that there
are no significant network disruptions or failures.
NRIC conducted an assessment of international telecommunications readiness,
which covered 84 of the 225 countries in the world. The NRIC study reported
that the countries facing a “high risk” of network problems tend to be
countries with lower “teledensity,” which have a lower dependence on
telecommunications services.
NRIC categorized Central and South America, the Indian Sub-Continent, and
Sub-Sahara Africa as high risk. The regions of North America, Asia Pacific
and Western Europe were categorized as low-to-moderate risk.
