Article author:
Associated Press
Mari Yamaguchi
Tokyo (AP) — Many users of Japan's second largest mobile operator, KDDI Corp., after a major power outage on Monday. But I had a hard time making a phone call. Weekends affected nearly 40 million people and disrupted national deliveries, weather forecasts and other services.
According to the company, data transmission was almost restored by Monday morning, but service restrictions have made it difficult for many users to make phone calls and send short messages. ..
The outage began early on Saturday during scheduled maintenance work at a facility in western Tokyo.
We have disabled text messaging, phone and other services for more than 39 million users of KDDI's mobile services. Delivery of parcels was also interrupted.
Over the weekend, the Japan Meteorological Agency will not be able to send weather data at hundreds of stations, dozens of automated teller machines will be unavailable in central Japan, and Tokyo and other municipalities will be subject to health monitoring. I had a hard time reaching the COVID-19 patient. At home.
The massive outage occurred shortly before the July 10 parliamentary elections and is considered embarrassing to the government of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who is pushing for the digitization of the world's third-largest economy. I did.
The government has swiftly responded to public concerns about this issue.
"It's a shame that mobile phone services, an important infrastructure for social and economic activity, have been unavailable for such a long time," Deputy Prime Minister Seiji Kihara told reporters on Monday.
He said the government took the situation "seriously" and urged KDDI to provide a thorough explanation. Mr. Kihara said that he hopes that KDDI will "in good faith" consider compensation for possible damages claims from users.
On Sunday, KDDI President Makoto Takahashi apologized and gave his first explanation of what happened and the prospect of resuming the interrupted service.
"I think this is a serious incident," said Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Yasushi Kaneko on Sunday. The power outage was particularly unfortunate as it interfered with emergency calls when people were facing an increased risk of potential emergencies due to COVID-19, heat stroke, and the approach of typhoons.
Last year's rival NTT DoCoMo's power outage affected about 13 million people.
