Year 2000 Readiness Disclosure Statement:

On 10/19/98, President Clinton signed into law the "Year 2000 Information and Readiness Disclosure Act." This Act provides limited liability and evidentiary admissibility protections for Year 2000 statements which are designated as "Year 2000 Readiness Disclosure." Pursuant to the Act, following is a transmittal of the Iowa Communications Network (ICN) statement addressing Year 2000 Readiness Disclosure.

Excellent progress is being made on the conversion. Below are the major components of the ICN’s Year 2000 Compliance Project:

• The DMS 500 Digital Switch has undergone a series of two software upgrades completed January 27, 1999, bringing the device into compliance with the Year 2000.
• The ROLM PBX switches, owned and operated by the ICN, have already been upgraded.
• The IowaHub (enterprise messaging hardware and software) was upgraded during October 1998, and Year 2000 verification testing has been successfully completed.
• Video Operation and Scheduling Software from Grass Valley has been replaced with Year 2000 compliant software. The software platform went operational on November 28, 1998, and the new Year 2000 compliant software was tested and accepted.
• NORTEL network transport equipment has been surveyed by NORTEL and all necessary changes are in process.
• ICN has received network element compliance statements from vendors on all elements not detailed above confirming compliance with the Year 2000.
• The circuit management and fault management software platforms for the network are being upgraded in the next few months as well.

As the upgrade of each network element is completed, the equipment and software dates are rolled forward to Year 2000, tested for compliance, then rolled back for ongoing operations.

A final network roll forward is planned for early October 1999 to verify that everything is functioning properly.