WASHINGTON-Wireless telephones will work when the new millennium arrives-right? Well, maybe.
The Federal Communications Commission last week refused to give a clean bill of health to the wireless industry regarding the millennium bug because only 31 percent of 300 companies surveyed responded to the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau inquiry by the cut-off date.
“According to the [wireless industry], wireless handsets have very few Y2K problems associated with them. The [FCC’s] survey revealed a … gap between the readiness of large and small wireless carriers. Our assessment, however, was hampered by a disappointingly low response rate from the wireless carriers that we surveyed,” said FCC Commissioner Michael Powell, who is heading up the FCC’s Y2K efforts.
The millennium bug results from a computer programming decision made decades ago to make the year-date field only two digits and program computers to assume the first two digits are 19. It is feared at the start of 2000, computers will crash or work improperly because the computer will think it is the year 1900 instead of 2000.
Notwithstanding Powell’s concerns, the wireless industry is responding to the FCC, said Gerald P. Vaughan, WTB deputy bureau chief. Responses “are coming in every day … We had to stop counting by a certain date,” Vaughan said.
It is unclear whether the FCC will publicly release the final results of the WTB survey when they are available. Vaughan said it would be up to Powell, and Powell said he was not sure there would be another formal FCC report even though the report released last week represents only a “snapshot in time.”
Powell said the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association and the Personal Communications Industry Association have done a good job of responding to the FCC on Y2K issues, but individual companies are less responsive. Vaughan concurred, saying PCIA and CTIA “have gotten the news out” about how important it is to respond.
CTIA President Thomas Wheeler in releasing CTIA survey results-where 93.4 percent responded-said comparing the surveys was difficult.
“I think it is apples and oranges. Responding to [the CTIA survey] doesn’t trigger concerns in general counsels’ minds about liability,” Wheeler said. The CTIA survey did not deal with Y2K.
At the same time, George Shaginaw, CTIA senior vice president for technology and operations, and Mary McDermott, PCIA senior vice president and chief of staff for government relations, said no company wants to catch the millennium bug.
For its part, PCIA stands ready and willing to do whatever it can to prod small companies to respond to the FCC’s request for information, McDermott said.
A secondary concern is some companies may have responded to a similar survey sent out by the Network Reliability and Interoperability Council and did not want to duplicate the effort. The problem is the NRIC response information did not break out industry sectors so it is not easily apparent whether a company is ready in both its wireline and wireless areas, Vaughan said.
Shaginaw said since small companies use the same platforms as large companies, the “real key to the small carriers is to get the dialogue going between the small carriers and the manufacturers.”
Powell said larger companies have more resources both in money and expertise to tackle this problem. Wheeler said CTIA is trying to provide these types of resources to small carriers.
The FCC was one of several federal agencies last week to report on its progress toward combating the millennium bug. President Clinton had said that all federal agencies should be ready-or on track to being ready-by March 31. The president’s point man on Y2K, John Koskinen, announced nearly all mission-critical systems within the 24 major federal departments and agencies are Y2K compliant and 12 are “100 percent ready for Y2K.” These agencies include the departments of the Interior, Education, Housing and Urban Development and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Meanwhile, Democrats on Capitol Hill have joined the fray of liability protection legislation. Before leaving for the Easter/Passover recess, Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) introduced The Y2K Fairness in Litigation Act in the Senate. Rep. Anna Eshoo introduced companion legislation in the House. Dodd is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Special Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem.
The Democratic bill would provide a waiting period before Year 2000 lawsuits could be filed and would encourage the use of alternative dispute resolution but would not cap punitive damages.
The Y2K Fairness in Litigation Act contains a number of provisions included in a bill passed last month by the Senate Judiciary Committee and introduced by Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).
The Hatch-Feinstein bill caps punitive damages at $250,000 or three times the amount of compensatory damages and limits personal liability of corporate directors, officers or trustees to $100,000.
The Democratic Y2K bill would give a prospective defendant 30 days in which to respond after being given notice about a Y2K problem by a prospective plaintiff. If the prospective defendant does not respond, then the prospective plaintiff can file lawsuit. If the prospective defendant does respond, then the prospective plaintiff must wait 90 days to allow the prospective defendant to correct the problem.
To weed out frivolous claims, when a plaintiff seeks money damages, the complaint must specify in detail the damages and material defects.
