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To: Michael F. Donadio who wrote (27827)	8/20/1999 11:09:00 PM
From: Techplayer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 77400

Michael, has AT&T tried to screw with its network for 9 days instead of shutting it down, their network would also have been down for 10. AT&T was decisive. WCOM was not. eom

To: Michael F. Donadio who wrote (27827)	8/21/1999 4:04:00 AM
From: Doug B.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 77400

The 10 day outage was a black eye for WCOM and LU, but for LU I see it as a knock out. If I were a WCOM customer (i.e. they get MY greenback dollars) I wouldn't know Lucent from Adam. MCI WorldCom would be the target of my ire. No question. Everything I've heard implies that WCOM screwed up in two ways: They left their customers high and dry and in the dark - inexcusable REGARDLESS of the extenuating circumstances - and they publicly blamed LU for the problem in a misguided attempt to deflect the perception of blame from themselves (even if it wasn't really their fault!!) Even if LU is 100% liable for all of the problems (something I admit I do not believe) WCOM's handling of the situation was abysmal and unprofessional, and for that they will be found guilty in the court of public opinion. JMO, BWDIK. Regards, Doug

To: Michael F. Donadio who wrote (27827)	9/18/1999 12:05:00 PM
From: Zoltan!	Respond to of 77400

From today's Barron's: But just as MCI WorldCom relies on data communications and the Internet to power its growth, its perception as a technology leader probably makes it more vulnerable when something goes wrong. That became apparent in August, when the company was forced to shut down its frame-relay, high-speed data network one weekend after a software upgrade caused a partial outage to 3,000 business customers, or about 30% of its frame business. Sidgmore says the company now understands what the problem was, and blames "basically a bug in the software" provided by Lucent Technologies. "Most customers were still getting service" during the outage, says Sidgmore, who isn't aware of losing any of them because of it. But although MCI WorldCom was communicating with its customers, Sidgmore concedes it probably could have communicated with investors more quickly than it did. Ebbers, who is not known for his reticence, finally held a conference call for analysts and the media on the Monday after the shutdown, and apologized for the problem, saying its impact on the quarter would be minimal. But that was nearly two weeks after the problem erupted. interactive.wsj.com