WASHINGTON-Even Congress cannot stop the coming of the millennium. That was the message
delivered last week to participants at a Year 2000, also known as Y2K, readiness conference sponsored by the Personal
Communications Industry Association.
Benjamin Woo of the House technology subcommittee warned the
participants if they are waiting for Congress to intervene and cure the millennium bug-don’t. “People should not
be sitting around waiting for Congress to get them off the hook … Members of Congress do not want to give companies
an easy way out,” Woo said.
The millennium bug refers to a glitch in computer programming where two-digit
date fields will mistake the year 2000 for 1900 and shut down or operate incorrectly.
“This is something that
you can’t go to the FCC and ask for a waiver,” said Gerald Vaughan, deputy chief of the FCC’s Wireless
Telecommunications Bureau.
The main goal of PCIA’s conference and of its speakers was to get this message
out.
There are 30 billion microprocessors in the world, Vaughan said, so the main pulpit being used to get the
message out is the computer-driven Internet. While this is a valid way to get the word out to people who use the
Internet, the Small Business Administration has estimated nearly 50 percent of small businesses are not linked to the
information superhighway.
“I am not worried about the big guys, the AT&Ts and Bell Atlantics,”
Vaughan said. “I am worried about the small and average guys” becoming aware of the potential
problems.
Vaughan’s answer is to put a Y2K flier in every outgoing piece of mail sent by the FCC, to save money
over mailing a separate notice.
If the message doesn’t get out and a vaccine is not found for the Y2K bug,
contingency planning is a must. Vaughan said at least 10 percent of the FCC’s work force will be available at the turn
of the century to trouble-shoot any problems.
This work force undoubtedly will interface with an International
Telecommunications Union project to communicate what happens as each time zone around the world turns over,
explained Marsha MacBride of the FCC’s Y2K Task Force.
MacBride also is responsible for the Network
Reliability and Interoperability Council, which is involved in preparing for 2000, she said. NRIC is an FCC advisory
committee chartered to examine network outages and network interoperability issues. AT&T’s chief executive officer,
C. Michael Armstrong, chairs NRIC IV.
