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Earthquake

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Japan Telecom Recovery - Electronic parts shortage, 3/15

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Japan has a significant global market share in many kinds of electronic parts and material, such as DRAM, flash memory, and silicon wafer, and a lot of factories are located in the affected area.  Those items are expected to be short supply and will give impact to the global consumer electronics prices. Bloomberg:  Memory Chip Prices Gain on Concern of Material Supply Shortage After Quake

Wall Street Journal:  Quake Sparks Tech Supply Shortage Concerns

Source:  WirelessWire News 3/15

Michi

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Japan Telecom Recovery - Mobile bill relief status, 3/15

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Cable channel "TV Japan" has been broadcasting the disaster news 24 hours now, and it just reported that the victim toll (death+missing) surpassed 10,000, worst since WWII.  Nuclear reactors in Fukushima are still out of control, new quakes continue, and panicking people are buying up food, resulting the shortage at stores.  Crisis still continues. In the meantime, telecom carriers in Japan are giving relief of payments for their subscribers.

Source:  WirelessWire News, 3/15

KDDI

  • Extend au mobile March bill due date for 1 month for the residents of the affected area and the ones who are paying at counter.
  • For the same users as above, cell phone repair charge at au store is discounted.

Softbank Mobile

  • Extend Softbank Feb/Mar bill due date for 1 month for the residents of the affected area and the ones who are paying at counter.
  • For the same users as above, cell phone repair charge at Softbank store is discounted.
  • For a week after 3/11, all mobile e-mails and SMS will be free for all Softbank users.

Wilcom and E-Mobile also provide the similar bill payment relief for subscribers.

Michi

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Japan Telecom Recovery - Undersea Cable Status, 3/14

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Despite the early reports, it looks like many undersea cables reaching to Japan have been damaged. GigaOM 3/14

Wall Street Journal 3/15

Wall Street Journal 3/14

But Japan has lots of cable connected to the U.S., China and other destinations and the re-routing seems to be working fine.  I personally have not had any problem accessing Japanese websites from the U.S.

Telegeography map

Source:  WirelessWire News 3/15

Michi

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Japan Telecom Recovery - Skype opens WiFi for free, 3/14

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Skype Japan has opened its "Skype Access" WiFi access service for free in Japan for some time in the future. For the following WiFi spots, you have to enter the followingWEP/WAP key.

  • livedoor Wireless (SSID: livedoor-web) 656C626A3633706F327077396A
  • BB Mobile Point (SSID: mobilepoint) 696177616B
  • HotSpot (SSID: 0033) A52DE42CB6

They also provide 80 yen credit to all Japanese Skype users, which corresponds to 30 minutes call to Japanese fixed phone.

Source:  Skype Japan

Michi

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Japan Telecom Recovery - DoCoMo's cell site damage info, 3/15

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According to Nikkei Newspaper, NTT DoCoMo's 2470 base stations are still not functional as of 3/15, 10am, down from 2810 site as of 3/14, 5pm. They say if the rolling blackout continues, fuel may run out at some of the sites and they will stop running.

Ibaragi prefecture is suffering the most, with 80% traffic restriction, followed by Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima, with 70% restriction.

Michi

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Japan Telecom Recovery - Rolling Blackout Effect for Fixed, 3/14

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Japan is one of the most sophisticated optical broadband country, but unfortunately, the optics cannot be used in case of power outages.  So the fixed line are affected by blackout pretty seriously. Source:  WirelessWire News, 3/14

Services expected to be unavailable in case of blackout

KDDI

(For consumers)

Telephone:  au Hikari, telephone, KDDI-IP Telephone/050 service, Cable Plus Telephone, Metal Plus Telephone (if a user use his/her own power), ADSL one Telephone Service (if a user use his/her own power), MyLine, MyLine Plus (if a user use his/her own power)

  • ISP:  au Hikari Net Service, ADSL one, Metal Plus Telephone, Dial Up, au one net
  • Other:  au Hikari TV servic

(Enterprise)

  • Telephone:  KDDI Hikari Direct, HDDI Hikari Direct over Powered Ethernet, KDDI Metal Plus (wholesale), KDDI-IP Phone
  • ISP:  KDDI Internet Gateway, Ether Share etc.
  • Intra Net Service: KDDI Wide Area Virtual Switch, KDDI Powered Ethernet, KDDI Ether-VPN etc.

NTT East (local service)

  • Telephone:  Hikari Telephone, ISDN, analog telephone (if a user use his/her own power)
  • ISP:  Flet's Hikari, Flet's ADSL, Flet's ISDN
  • Business Service:  Business Ether, Flet's VPN, PBX, Key-Telephone

NTT Communications (long distance)

  • Telephone:  OCN Dot Phone, Hikari Line (Arcstar Direct etc.)
  • ISP:  OCS
  • Enterprise data service:  IP-VPN, e-VLAN, dedicated line etc.

Michi

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Japan Telecom Recovery - Rolling Blackout Effect for Mobile, 3/14

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Due to the damages to power plants, including the current-hot-topic Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant -, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) planned rolling blackout in Tohoku/Kanto area.  As of 3:00pm, 3/14, mobile carriers are stating the expected effect of the blackout as follow: Source:  WirelessWire News, 3/14

Softbank Mobile

  • Each base station has a power generator, and will be functional for a few to a few teens of hours.  Therefore, if the blackout lasts 3 hours as planned, mobile phones will be functional, but due to other reasons, sometimes the service can be unstable.

au (KDDI)

  • Except for the areas already affected due to the base station damage, au mobile service will be available.  However, in some areas served by repeaters such as underground malls and high-rise buildings, or where service congestion occur, the service may not stable.
  • au femtocell and au repeaters will not be functional.

NTT DoCoMo

  • Each base station has its own power generator and we believe that planned 3 hour blackout will not disrupt the service, but there are many uncertainties and we cannot state for sure.

Wilcom

  • Service may be unstable due to the rolling blackout.

UQ Communications

  • Most of UQ's WiMax base stations are not equipped with power generator and we expect that service will not be available during the rolling blackout.

Michi

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Japan Telecom Recovery - Internet radio and TV, 3/13

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As of 3/13, 5pm, radiko (Internet radio) eliminated its area restrictions and anyone can hear its streaming from anywhere in Japan. You can listen to the below stations at radiko.jp or radiko smartphone apps, but due to the high traffic, stations are requesting that non-emergency listeners refrain from accessing the site, and give priority to Tohoku area residents.

Source:  WirelessWire News, 3/13

Available stations:

Kanto Area:  TBS Radio, Bunka Hoso, Nippon Hoso, Radio Nikkei, InterFM, FM TOKYO, J-WAVE

Kansai Area:  ABC Radio, MBS Radio, OBC Radio Osaka, FM COCOLO, FM802, FM OSAKA

NHK TV is re-streamed on uStream, NicoNico Douga, Yahoo.  NHK Daiichi Radio is streamed online simultaneously.

Michi

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Japan Telecom Recovery - Emergency bulletin board, 3/11

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All the mobile carriers started "Emergency Mobile Bulletin Board" right after the quake on 3/11. Source:  WirelessWire News, 3/11

NTT DoCoMo:  iMenu top menu, only available to upload from Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi, Akita, Yamagata, Fukushima, Ibaragi, Tochigi, Gunma, Saitama, Chiba, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Niigata, Yamanashi, Nagano prefectures.  For smartphones, Emergency Bulletin app is available from DoCoMo Market.

au (KDDI):  EZ Web top menu, or auone top menu

Softbank Mobile:  Yahoo! Keitai or My Softbank, and iPhone Emergency App

E-mobile:  Bookmark -> EMnet service

Wilcom:  http://dengon.clubh.ne.jp

For access from PC, see the following:

NTT East (Fixed Local) is providing Emergency Bulletin Board Dial 117 and Broadband Bulletin Web117.

Michi

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Japan Telecom Recovery - fixed, the next day 3/12

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This is the situation on the next day after the quake struck. 3/12 (Sat) around noon, according to my friend Asako Itagaki at WirelessWire News

Source:  WirelessWire News 3/12 noon

NTT East (local telephone in the eastern Japan)

  • Service interruption:  485,000 analog telephone lines, 79,500 ISDN and Flet's ISDN, 208,600 Flet's Hikari (FTTH), mainly in Miyagi and Iwate prefectures
  • In all NTT East area (east of Niigata, Nagano, Yamanashi and Kanagawa, total of 17 prefectures), public phone are open to public for free

NTT Communications (long distance)

  • Approx. 500 enterprise lines (Arcstar Direct) are disrupted mainly in Tohoku Area
  • OCN (ISP) is unstable in Tohoku Area (Miyagi, Iwate, Fukushima, Akita and Yamagata)
  • Approx. 12000 enterprise data service lines (IP-VPN、e-VLAN etc.) are unstable in some parts of Tohoku Area

KDDI

  • Some of analog telephone lines are unstable
  • Internet service such as au one net, IP-VPN, WVS, Ether VPN, Hikari Direct, Metal Plus, IP Phone, Cable Plus Phone are unstable in some parts of the affected area, Hokkaido, Aomori, Iwate, Akita, Miyagi, Yamagata and Fukushima prefectures

Softbank Telecom

  • Some telecom services are unstable in the affected area, Aomori, Iwate, Akita, Miyagi, Yamagata, Fukushima and Ibaragi prefectures

Michi