Midnight calls strain lines, but no bugs

By RICHARD BRADDELL

WELLINGTON - It was Yawn2K, almost, for New Zealand's telecommunications networks whose biggest problem was keeping up with caller demand on the big night.

While few, if any, telecom failures due to the millennium bug were reported anywhere in the world, local networks did struggle to keep up with the expected deluge of calls to the most popular international destinations - Australia and Britain.

Overloading on Telecom's international network in the small hours resulted in a backlog in calls to Britain which ended at 2.30 am and to Australia that was cleared by 3 am. Clear Communications also suffered from congestion.

"The only problem we had was a bit of congestion on the network, which we had expected anyway," Telecom spokeswoman Kerry Lamont said.

While the telephone companies said yesterday that they did not have the data to hand, it seems likely that the new millennium was responsible for record traffic, even eclipsing the usual peak on Christmas Day.

But ensuring that networks stood up has come at a price. Telecom and Clear Communications spent $100 million and $20 million respectively, while other networks have not disclosed figures.

Clear spokesman Ross Inglis said it was worth it, even if nothing obvious could be seen for it, because services to business customers were "mission critical" and had to stand up.

However, one of Clear's larger concerns, that failures in overseas networks could cause problems, did not eventuate with even Third World countries making comfortable transitions into the new millennium.

Vodafone spokeswoman Val Hayes said that even though extra capacity had been laid on in central city areas and popular holiday resorts such as Mt Maunganui and Coromandel, record traffic had caused minor congestion.

The change in millennium calling patterns was also marked in Saturn Communications' Wellington network, which caters to residential customers who are normally most active during the evening.

Saturn's general manager of network operations, Chris Annesley, said the evening traffic was often less than 20 per cent of usual until a massive surge after midnight saw international calls outnumbering local calls by three to one.

In Australia, the director of Telstra's Year 2000 programme, Negba Weiss-Dolev, said a huge surge in calling between Australia, New Zealand, the US and Britain was a record for a new year, although it was not clear whether it had matched what had been a bumper Chistmas.

"You could see the peak move with midnight," she said.

Telstra has spent $A400 million in ensuring Y2K compliance, money she says was not wasted because of problems revealed.

It had produced considerable fringe benefits aside from getting rid of old infrastructure and information technology applications. These included a detailed analysis of how assets were used which was valuable in product development.

One example of a Y2K spin-off was that it eased the introduction of GST accounting.

The comprehensive review of a telecommunications business spanning fixed wire, mobile, satellite and the internet had been liberating, Ms Weiss-Dolev said.