Unnamed Administration sources reported that Hank Nussbacher said:
The phone companies won't admit it but they are scared that at 1 second
past midnight, everyone will say to themselves, "Hmmm, lights are still on,
I wonder if the phones have stopped working?" and then within 1 minute,
millions of people will be lifting their phones off the hooks to check
dial-tone. You know what happens when that happens.
Not much. The switches are VERY well designed and tested; Gatesware
should dream of doing as well.
See the discussion w/ folks who run same in comp.dcom.telecom.tech..
Rather than crashing; they protect themselves by suspending
non-essential dianostics & maintenance, then delaying/denying dial
tone to callers as needed. While lots of folks may be annoyed, I
doubt switches will croak.