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Britain issues early millennium bug all-clear

LONDON: Britain declared itself millennium bug free on Saturday but warned that companies and other institutions with computers still had to be on their guard.

"There are no significant bug incidents. In the first three hours we have had not one report," Mike Ricketts, senior official at the government's Millennium Centre, told Reuters.

Key services such as electricity, gas and water were operating smoothly and Ricketts said any problems would have been expected to show up quickly.

But for businesses, there will be anxious days ahead with most companies not returning to work until January 4.

"This is just the first few hours. For some firms, any problems could take weeks to show up," Ricketts said.

Britain was widely recognised as one of the world's best prepared countries but officials were in no doubt there could have been chaos if years of hard work had not been put in.

"It could have been disastrous," one said.

The millennium bug stems from mainly older computer systems which were programmed to read only the last two digits of a year.

Experts feared that if the glitch was left uncorrected systems would misread 2000 as 1900, causing them to malfunction or even crash.

PHONES QUIET AT UK MILLENNIUM CENTRE

Ranks of government officials and press officers sat by phones in the Millennium Centre -- the same complex where Winston Churchill once plotted the downfall of Adolf Hitler -- to field calls from the media and public. Barely a phone rang.

They were in touch with all government departments and got the same message -- "No news is good news".

National Grid Plc, which runs Britain's electricity network, said it had seen no signs of computer bug problems. Electricity generator Powergen PWG.L said likewise.

Thames Water, Britain's largest water company, also saw no sign of the bug.

British Airways Plc, one of the world's largest airlines, said its 15 aircraft that were airborne during the millennium date change were all safe.

"We've just finished contacting them all and everything is fine," British Airways spokesman Mitesh Kotecha told Reuters.

Airports operator BAA Plc was busy testing its systems before its first scheduled flight landed but anticipated no trouble.

Barclays, one of Britain's four largest banks, said it had not seen any bug hiccups.

British Telecommunications Plc said its network was fine but that call volumes were heavy.

Vodafone Airtouch, the world's largest mobile phone operator, said heavy traffic on its system from revellers calling each other was causing some temporary overloads.

"As in other years, because so many people wanted to phone and send their messages at one minute past midnight, not all of them got through," spokeswoman Michelle Burgess said.-Reuters