MNP Crashed KDDI Systems

KDDI Corp. was forced to stop accepting mobile phone orders because of a computer glitch caused by a surge in calls on Sunday. KDDI officials said that au’s service computer that handles the orders slowed down at about 4 p.m. on Sunday, and stopped receiving orders. It began receiving orders at about 4:40 p.m., but again stopped at about 5 p.m. because of the computer glitch. The service resumed receiving orders on Monday, officials said.

“We received more orders than expected (on Sunday) in a bonus-related campaign,” a KDDI official said. KDDI plans to increase the capacity of its computer memory in a bid to improve operations.

It’s interesting to note the change in language from the Mainichi between the two articles (in order, with bold highlight below) regarding the subscriber loss numbers of the other carriers — Eds.

http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20061218p2a00m0na005000c.html
Since the new phone number rule, NTT DoCoMo has lost some 238,000 customers, while SoftBank lost 78,000 users by the end of November. KDDI’s customers have increased by some 316,000.

http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20061218p2a00m0na011000c.html
KDDI’s au service increased the number of customers by some 316,000 as of the end of November after the new rule was introduced, while its two rivals, NTT DoCoMo and SoftBank lost many customers.