Tech KDDI communication breakdown

[thomas]

This is major news in Japan: mobile phone carrier KDDI Corp. (AU) said yesterday, Saturday, that nearly 40 million mobile connections were snarled by a nationwide glitch that surfaced in the early hours of the previous day. We also use AU KDDI and just realised that we are unable to place any phone calls. So contrary to the article posted below, the troubles persist.

KDDI said earlier that a failure in part of its system to convert voice to data was responsible for the outage. As the unprocessed data accumulated, communications became overwhelmed, forcing KDDI to curb its transmission of data to keep other services intact. The company announced July 3 at noon that services in western Japan had been recovered by 11 a.m. Those in eastern Japan were expected to be restored by around 5:30 p.m. The total number of lines affected stood at 39.15 million. The figure included 35.8 million mobile phone lines, 1.4 million set aside for the mobile virtual network operator and 1.5 million for Internet of Things. Takahashi said that up to 260,000 companies--including those in logistics, banking and transportation--were affected by the outage.

Up to 40 million lines affected by KDDI’s glitch in communications | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis

Up to 39.15 million KDDI mobile lines affected during nationwide disruption

The au mobile brand operator has been scrambling to resolve the disruption to its nationwide network since early Saturday.

www.japantimes.co.jp

 

[Hiroyuki Nagashima]

I used a cell-phone of the AU, but did not notice that a communication disorder was taking place.
As I was able to use AU PAY in a shop and talked in LINE.😮‍💨

 

[mdchachi]

I used a cell-phone of the AU, but did not notice that a communication disorder was taking place.
As I was able to use AU PAY in a shop and talked in LINE.😮‍💨

According to the article, they dropped their voice call service in order to keep your AU PAY and LINE connection intact.

 

[bentenmusume]

I'm an AU user (not because of any particular loyalty to KDDI, but mostly just because of inertia and how much of a damn hassle it is to switch carriers), and I was completely without service here in Tokyo for all of Saturday and most of yesterday.

It was especially annoying because I went out for a long run to an area I don't usually visit on Saturday and I kept trying to check Google Maps on my phone. Was going insane trying to figure out why I had no connection and at one point I was worried the heat had fried my battery or something.

Between this and freaking Mizuho with their constant system failures and maintenances I'm starting to seriously consider changing both my bank and carrier. I have nothing but sympathy for the employees on the ground who have to deal with these issues, but it's absolutely ridiculous that these megabanks and major corporations can't get their **** together.

 

[tomoni]

AU user, but I have 4G and as of now (Monday morning)- still NO PHONE service.

 

[mdchachi]

It was especially annoying because I went out for a long run to an area I don't usually visit on Saturday and I kept trying to check Google Maps on my phone. Was going insane trying to figure out why I had no connection and at one point I was worried the heat had fried my battery or something.

Well it's a good reminder how of how easy you have it these days. I use to carry this wherever I went.
And when I wanted to look up a word I didn't know, I'd have to painstakingly look it up on my Canon Wordtank.
I took a backpack or fanny pack wherever I went with at least these two essentials. I never did anything so crazy as go for a run though.

 

[thomas]

We used to rely on Touring Mapple guides for our bike tours:

Amazon product

They are still updated every year. Highly recommended.

Back to maps, landlines, fax, and telegrams. And the Wordtank.

 

[thomas]

KDDI decided to pay damages to millions of users. Sounds good.

However, their compensations are only for customers who have signed up for "call-only" services, usually elderly people. The amount of payment will depend on the basic fee of their mobile plan and how they used their phone over the past six months, among other factors. If a customer signed up for a monthly calls-only plan for 1,265 JPY and could not use their phone for two days, they would be qualified for 80 JPY damages.

For users that do not qualify for damages, KDDI is considering compensating them with an "apology."

No comment. 😶

According to KDDI's terms and conditions, individual users are eligible for compensation if a service outage lasts 24 hours or longer. The mobile carrier said the disruption in effect lasted around 61 hours, from the early hours of July 2 through the afternoon of July 4, when services were mostly restored.

These headlines are grossly misrepresentative.

KDDI to pay damages to millions of users after network outage

Mobile service operator KDDI Corp said Friday it plans to compensate millions of customers affected by a major service disruption that lasted several days earlier this month. The damages will mainly cover "calls-only" customers who use cell phones unable to access mobile data, likely meaning...

japantoday.com

KDDI to pay damages to millions of users after network outage - The Mainichi

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Mobile service operator KDDI Corp. said Friday it plans to compensate millions of customers affected by a major service disruption th

mainichi.jp

 

[Uncle Frank]

 

[Petaris]

According to the article, they dropped their voice call service in order to keep your AU PAY and LINE connection intact.

What an age we live in where a phone company figured you would be more pissed at loosing your data connection than your ability to make phone calls.

*Yes, I know that you could still call over apps, but still...

 

[tomoni]

@frank

But they’re absolutely correct – I would be much more pissed if they chosen Phone calls over data.

I almost never use my telephone, although I pay fir a plan with unlimited calling domestically.

 

[Lomaster]

I was shocked with insufficient signal coverage and instability when i came to Japan. For me the solution was to use dual sim mode, with two different providers (not specifying here, but both are major ones) That way when one provider has issues i can always rely on the second one. Now i only lose both signals when i go hiking 🤦‍♂️

 

[tomoni]

I was shocked with insufficient signal coverage and instability when i came to Japan. For me the solution was to use dual sim mode, with two different providers (not specifying here, but both are major ones) That way when one provider has issues i can always rely on the second one. Now i only lose both signals when i go hiking 🤦‍♂️

Really??

I think the coverage is awesome here-

I don’t do mountain tracking but I’m all over the Inaka and I’ve never had a SIGNAL problem in the last five years or so.

But I have been in Japan for a long time, and the only thing I really have to compare to is south east Asian countries – as I haven’t gone anywhere else in the last 10 years or so.

i’m curious aside from mountain tracking, where do you run into signal problems.

I used AU, and one time switch to Softbank, and then switch back to AU so in the last 15 years or so maybe longer except for two years with Softbank I’ve been with AU all the time.

Before that was a PHS and before that a pocket bell (nazukashi!!!), so it might be longer than I have been with AU.

 

[mdchachi]

I was shocked with insufficient signal coverage and instability when i came to Japan. For me the solution was to use dual sim mode, with two different providers (not specifying here, but both are major ones) That way when one provider has issues i can always rely on the second one. Now i only lose both signals when i go hiking 🤦‍♂️

Why is constant connectivity so important? Are you a day trader?