Phone, Power Companies Report No Y2K-Related Problems

BellSouthspent four years and $265 million updating its systems for Y2K.

Their biggest worry was New Year's well-wishers clogging up the BellSouth network at midnight, but callers heeded BellSouth's warnings.

Carolina Power and Light, which invested more than $20 million to make its system Y2K compliant, also had an ordinary Y2K day, and preparation was the key.

"As far as CP&L was concerned, it's business as usual," said Sally Ramey, CP&L spokeswoman. "All of our systems made the transition without any problems at all which, of course, is a credit to our employees since we've been working on Y2K since 1994."

The companies that depend on the utilities say they cannot wait for the uncertainties related to the year 2000 date change to end.

"We're pretty much out of business if the phones don't work," says Steven Ray, owner of Corschiani Dino's.

Dave Lane, regional director of BellSouth, says his company has not survived the Y2K computer problem just yet.

"We still are looking to Monday and Tuesday -- a lot of businesses are closed this weekend or have limited staff -- so we're expecting them to be busy days," Lane said.

A leading technology research company says that just 10 percent of the Y2K glitches will occur in the two weeks that follow January 1. The rest, it says, will occur after that period.