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To: Ove Hansen who wrote (27623)	8/13/1999 5:00:00 PM
From: Zoltan!	Respond to of 77400

Your story says the MCI-LU meltdown has only gotten worse! CBOT is going on its backup indefinitely and "is pursuing all available remedies": Dow Jones Newswires -- August 13, 1999 DJ MCI WorldCom Data System Crisis Continues By Shawn Young NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--A network crisis that began at MCI WorldCom Inc. (WCOM) more than a week ago continues to stymie critical high-speed transmissions among some business computers. The Chicago Board of Trade said Friday its electronic trading system, which first failed last Thursday, will be out of commission until Sunday evening because of problems with MCI WorldCom's frame-relay system. Frame relay is a data-transmission technology that handles a host of business functions, including many airline reservations, cash-machine transactions, electronic trading and Internet transmissions. The system is recovering, but service was set back again Thursday when some customers whose service had been restored were knocked back out, said MCI WorldCom spokeswoman Linda Laughlin. Thursday's difficulties followed maintenance work that revealed instabilities, she said. The company won't say what percentage of the system remains in trouble, and Laughlin said the Clinton, Miss., carrier can't yet say when service will be back to normal. MCI WorldCom is the nation's second-largest long-distance company and a major provider of data services to business. The service problem has affected an estimated 3,500 customers, which have been plagued with sporadic outages and slow service. The meltdowns were triggered by an upgrade to Lucent Technologies Inc. (LU) software that somehow flooded the system with extraneous messages that clogged it. MCI WorldCom and Lucent said they do not yet have details on what caused the problem. The companies have been working around the clock to solve it, said Lucent spokeswoman Lucia Graziano The problems have affected a variety of companies and institutions, including airlines, banks and public libraries either directly or through their suppliers. The severity and duration of the difficulties has varied. America Online Inc. (AOL) said some of its 18 million customers have experienced "minor performance issues," mostly waits for Web sites to load. The Internet company said it uses various networks so the problems haven't been widespread. Other companies that reported at least minor effects include Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (BMY) and Continental Airlines Inc. (CALA). The hard-hit Chicago Board of Trade has had to contend with a power failure in Chicago as well as with problems with its Project A electronic trading system. The commodities exchange will switch to a backup system if MCI WorldCom's problem isn't solved by Sunday evening, its officials said Friday. Telecommunications companies are sticklers for reliability, but outages occur despite efforts to make networks failure-proof. "This stuff happens," said Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette Securities Inc. analyst Richard Klugman. "It's certainly not a disaster." "Time will tell if this is a blemish on their reputation," he said. Cautioning that he was guessing, Klugman said the outage will probably cost MCI WorldCom no more than $10 million to $20 million. A software upgrade triggered a frame-relay outage for AT&T Corp. (T) last year. The company didn't reveal the cost of the incident, in which it swore off charging customers until it had fixed the problem, determined the cause and identified preventive measures. AT&T's meltdown was more extensive than the one plaguing MCI WorldCom, but it was over in about a day. AT&T won high praise for its proactive and very public handling of the situation. MCI WorldCom is taking a more low-profile approach and has been working with customers on a case-by-case basis about refunds and credits for lost service. It has been working around the clock with customers to restore service, Laughlin said. "They certainly haven't been as proactive as AT&T was," Klugman said. "It's just a different style." interactive.wsj.com