From the Federal Governments Y2K Consumer Information Pages
"An unusually large number of telephone calls are likely to be made on New
Year�s Eve and on New Year's Day, 2000. This high traffic could cause delays
and other problems on the telephone network unrelated to any Year 2000
problems. For this reason, we ask that you minimize telephone use on New
Year�s Eve or Day."
http://www.y2k.gov/java/Y2K_message.htm
-Robert Cannon
Speaking almost entirely for myself
In regards to self fulfilling prophecies:
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.
This is only a problem in some networks. Most of the time the actual
dial tone does not congest the system. As someone who builds telephone
networks I have to say that at least the 26 CLECs I work with will do
fine. 
I am more worried about the people factor, when people freak out
you can have problems.
<>
Nathan Stratton Tricetel Consulting
http://www.tricetel.net nathan@tricetel.net
http://www.robotics.net nathan@robotics.net
Speaking of telephone style networks. Has anyone noticed significant
degradation in their cell/pager coverage/performance over the last couple
of weeks?
Or maybe I'm imagining here.
Deepak Jain
AiNET