Glitches Hit N.C. 911, British Credit Systems

A credit card system in Britain and the 911 emergency response system in Charlotte, N.C., already have reported disruptions related to the Y2K computer changeover, a senior U.S. official said Wednesday.

These regional examples “may be illustrative of the kind of glitches that are going to occur along the way here and around the world,” said John Koskinen, chairman of President Clinton’s Council on the Year 2000 Conversion.

In Britain, a credit card system that reads four days in advance couldn’t process transactions swiped through the system’s 200,000 machines, the Daily Mail in London reported. The machines, supplied in Britain by Racal Electronics, were fixed by pressing the clear button twice.

“That fix is being widely distributed to those merchants that are using that system,” about 5% of the outlets in Britain, Koskinen said. The U.S. doesn’t operate a similar computer system, he said.

Charlotte’s 911 system found problems during Y2K testing, and even a primary backup system failed. No service was disrupted, however, because a manual backup is processing calls, he said.

Koskinen’s group reported last month that 911 systems, which are locally operated, cut it very close in making their systems compliant.

Government officials and companies say they will be testing systems until midnight Friday.

“As companies go through these types of final tests, we are going to see these last-minute glitches,” said Bob Cohen, senior vice president at the Information Technology Assn. of America, a trade group representing 26,000 information technology companies.

An ITAA survey released Wednesday found that 92% of 400 companies questioned said they are ready for this weekend, Cohen said.

The U.S. emergency response agency will be on 24-hour alert starting today and continuing through the weekend, and is ready to respond to any public safety emergency, federal officials said.