Firms in deep water over second millennium bomb

Private voice networks face code chaos

Major corporations face a nightmare debugging a second millennium bomb, which if not disarmed will throw internal switch-boards into confusion and result in misdirected calls.

Private voice networks which have not been modified to work with new dialling codes to be launched during Easter weekend in the year 2000 will misdirect both internal and external calls.

Thames Water, which runs 80 private exchanges, has branded the task a nightmare, and is urging other large users to draw up a business plan by September for use in 1999 ? ahead of the changes.

Telecoms manager Tony King warned: ?It makes me wish we had a virtual private network, then someone else would have to do the upgrade, and all we?d have to do is change the livery on the vans.?

The Telecommunications Managers? Association (TMA) warns that companies have overlooked this area, adding that there was greater scope for failure with the new numbering system because of the complex codes involved.

Software fixes introduced in the last code change, when central London converted to 0171, automatically inserted the digit ?1? into numbers dialled with the old code.

The TMA warns that these fixes could misdirect calls in the year 2000. Calls to London, to be coded 02, could be routed to Bodmin in Cornwall, whose code is 01208 or Consett country Durham whose code is 01207.