[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Hyewon] One of Japan's three major mobile carriers, KDDI, has experienced a large-scale communication outage, causing disruptions in mobile phone calls and data services for over a day.
According to KDDI on the 3rd, difficulties in using KDDI's communication services have persisted since around 1:35 a.m. the previous day.
Major KDDI communication services such as au and UQ Mobile phones, the low-cost plan brand povo, voice communication for business users using au lines, internet calls, text messaging (SMS) services, and voice calls using the Long-Term Evolution (LTE, 4G) network (VoLTE) have been difficult to use across the Japanese archipelago for more than a day.
Emergency calls have also been unavailable, prompting KDDI to advise using public telephones and other alternatives.
Local media reported that KDDI has about 62 million service contracts, including 31 million individual customers, and the communication outage has caused disruptions in a wide range of areas such as logistics, finance, and weather observation.
Not only consumers directly using KDDI's services but also users of Rakuten Mobile, a low-cost mobile brand using KDDI's lines, experienced inconveniences. Nippon Yubin, a postal company, announced concerns about delays in mail and parcel deliveries due to problems with its cargo information system.
According to Kyodo News, the Japan Meteorological Agency's regional weather observation system, which handles data such as temperature and precipitation, was unable to send some data, affecting about 480 of the 1,300 observation points nationwide as of 6 p.m. on the 2nd.
Systems providing location information for some bus companies operating in the metropolitan area were paralyzed, and wireless equipment used by Japan Airlines staff at Narita and Haneda airports malfunctioned, causing operational difficulties.
Ogaki Kyoritsu Bank, a regional bank based in Gifu Prefecture, reported that from the morning of the 2nd, 190 out of 221 ATMs installed in four prefectures?Gifu, Aichi, Mie, and Shiga?were not functioning properly.
The Nihon Keizai Shimbun analyzed that KDDI had accelerated its Internet of Things (IoT) business targeting corporate customers and was providing about 24.5 million lines as of the end of March this year, making the impact of this communication outage particularly significant.
The Asahi Shimbun assessed that this incident could be the largest communication outage in history.
KDDI explained that a facility failure occurring in the early hours of the 2nd caused a traffic surge in the VoLTE exchange, leading to service problems, and announced that services in the western Japan region could resume around 11 a.m. that day.
This is not the first time that major mobile carriers in Japan have experienced large-scale service interruptions. Previously, in October last year, NTT Docomo, the largest mobile carrier, suffered a 29-hour communication outage and received administrative guidance from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. SoftBank, one of the three major carriers, also experienced a large-scale communication outage in December 2018, causing service disruptions.
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