Government Sets Up Y2K Hotline

Consumers fretting about how they will fly come January 2000 or whether their Social Security checks will arrive on time have a new resource for addressing their millennium woes: a toll-free information line. By dialing (888) USA-4Y2K, consumers can access prerecorded messages seven days a week, 24 hours a day on how personal computers, small businesses, telephones and other products or services will be affected by the approaching year 2000. “We are committed to providing consumers the latest information on how the problem may or may not affect government services, banks, household appliances and other things they depend upon in their daily lives,” said John Koskinen, chairman of President Clinton’s Council on Year 2000, which set up the hotline in conjunction with the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Information Center of the General Services Administration. Consumer information also can be obtained through the council’s Web site at https://www.y2k.gov.