Y2K Warning: Stay Away From the Phone

Major phone companies are sending an unusual New Year’s plea to their customers: Don’t pick up that phone!

They fear millions of people will check for a dial tone just after midnight on Jan. 1 to see whether their phone service survived the Y2K bug.

Add them to all the folks who ring in the New Year by calling family and there’s a potential for a telecommunications traffic jam. Some callers who pick up their handsets might hear nothing or get a fast busy signal.

But that won’t necessarily indicate that Year 2000 problems have wrecked the network, firms say.

“Just because you pick up the telephone at or around midnight Dec. 31 and get a busy signal doesn’t mean you’ve been bitten by the Y2K bug,” said Bill Kula of GTE Corp. Y2K problems arise from breakdowns in computer systems that read only the last two digits in a year and interpret 2000, or “00,” as 1900.

The phone companies say they expect no major computer errors.