Outages disrupt services at Japan's No. 2 telecoms carrier
source link: https://techxplore.com/news/2022-07-outages-disrupt-japan-telecoms-carrier.html
Go to the source link to view the article. You can view the picture content, updated content and better typesetting reading experience. If the link is broken, please click the button below to view the snapshot at that time.
July 4, 2022
Outages disrupt services at Japan's No. 2 telecoms carrier
By MARI YAMAGUCHI
Many users of Japan's No. 2 mobile carrier KDDI Corp. were still having trouble making calls Monday after a massive outage throughout the weekend that affected nearly 40 million people, disrupting deliveries, weather reports and other services across the country.
The company said data transmission had largely been restored by Monday morning, but service restrictions were still causing many users to have trouble with making phone calls and sending short messages.
The outage started in the early hours of Saturday during a scheduled maintenance work at a facility in western Tokyo.
It disabled text messaging, phone calls and other services for more than 39 million users of KDDI's mobile services. Parcel deliveries also were disrupted.
Over the weekend, the Meteorological Agency was unable to send weather data at hundreds of stations, dozens of cash machines were disabled in central Japan, and Tokyo and other municipalities had trouble reaching COVID-19 patients subject to health monitoring at home.
The major outage came just ahead of a July 10 parliamentary election and was seen as embarrassment for Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's government, which has been promoting digitization of the world's No. 3 economy.
The government was quick to address public concern over the problem.
- KDDI Corp. President Makoto Takahashi speaks during a press conference in Tokyo Sunday, July 3, 2022. Many users of Japan’s No. 2 mobile carrier KDDI Corp. were still having trouble making calls Monday after a massive outage throughout the weekend that affected nearly 40 million people, disrupting deliveries, weather reports and other services across the country. Credit: Kyodo News via AP
- A person walks past an "au" mobile brand operator shop, of KDDI Corp., Monday, July 4, 2022, in Tokyo. Many users of Japan’s No. 2 mobile carrier KDDI Corp. were still having trouble making calls Monday after a massive outage throughout the weekend that affected nearly 40 million people, disrupting deliveries, weather reports and other services across the country. Credit: AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko
- KDDI Corp. President Makoto Takahashi, right, bows at the end of a press conference in Tokyo Sunday, July 3, 2022. A weekend outage at Japan’s No. 2 mobile carrier KDDI Corp. was still preventing many of its customers from making calls Monday. The massive outage that began early Saturday affected nearly 40 million people and the delivery of weather reports and other services across the country. Credit: Kyodo News via AP
- KDDI Corp. President Makoto Takahashi speaks during a press conference in Tokyo Sunday, July 3, 2022. Many users of Japan’s No. 2 mobile carrier KDDI Corp. were still having trouble making calls Monday after a massive outage throughout the weekend that affected nearly 40 million people, disrupting deliveries, weather reports and other services across the country. Credit: Kyodo News via AP
- A person walks past an "au" mobile brand operator shop, of KDDI Corp., Monday, July 4, 2022, in Tokyo. Many users of Japan’s No. 2 mobile carrier KDDI Corp. were still having trouble making calls Monday after a massive outage throughout the weekend that affected nearly 40 million people, disrupting deliveries, weather reports and other services across the country. Credit: AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko
"It is extremely regrettable that mobile phone service, which is a crucial infrastructure for social and economic activity, has been unusable for such a long time," Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seiji Kihara told reporters on Monday.
He said the government was taking the situation "seriously" and urged KDDI to provide a thorough explanation. Kihara said he expected KDDI to "sincerely" consider compensation for possible damage claims from users.
On Sunday, KDDI President Makoto Takahashi apologized and provided an initial explanation about what happened and the outlook for resumption of disrupted services.
"We consider this a severe incident," Internal affairs and communications minister Yasushi Kaneko said on Sunday. The outage was especially unfortunate because it disrupted emergency calls at a time when people were facing increased risks of COVID-19 and heat strokes and potential emergencies due to an approaching typhoon.
An outage last year by rival NTT DoCoMo affected nearly 13 million people.
Explore further
© 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Recommend
-
5
UK telecoms providers may not have to provide fax services at affordable prices soon...
-
7
Google Inbox never had problems like this — Google sees major services outages two days in a row Some users are still reporting problems, especially if they use a third-party client. ...
-
5
Cyber attacks on Kent councils disrupt online servicesPublished3 days ago
-
7
Huawei promises to launch P40 with Google service replacement, reports say – Telecoms.com
-
5
May 11, 2021 ...
-
4
May 11, 2021 ...
-
6
Tech PolicyNext infrastructure challenge: Fixing rural cellphone serviceRural telecom companies are going to press the House to add spending...
-
4
Hey y’all, it’s Austin in Los Angeles. The U.S. is about to start destroying tons of Huawei and ZTE equipment. But first…Today’s top tech news:Amazon boosted its workforce 75% during Covid, and is
-
3
Britain delays removal of Huawei from telecoms network Covid blamed for six-month delay as Sir Iain Duncan Smith warns it increases threat to UK
-
2
Telecoms blackout reported in northeastern Ukraine, first major outage so far Image Credit: NetBlocks Join today's leading execut...
About Joyk
Aggregate valuable and interesting links.
Joyk means Joy of geeK