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IP: an answer to --: Any IP'ers in Japan willing to comment on this?: Japan rations new year mobile use
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Wed, 02 Jan 2002 16:27:43 -0500
Date: Thu, 03 Jan 2002 06:05:12 +0900 From: Naoki Yamamoto <naoki () matatabi com> To: dave () farber net >Date: Tue, 01 Jan 2002 15:09:04 -0800 >From: Ari Ollikainen <Ari () OLTECO com> >Subject: Japan rations new year mobile use >X-Sender: ari () mail olteco com >To: farber () cis upenn edu > > Any IP'ers in Japan willing to comment on this? > >Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/business/newsid_1735000/1735365.stm >Monday, 31 December, 2001, 06:20 GMT >Japan rations new year mobile use >'Happy New Year' calls will be restricted Japanese mobile phone >companies are limiting access to their services over the new year. > >The firms fear that a surge in calls and text messages to pass on >new year greetings will paralyse their networks. I live in Japan and am a subscriber of NTTDoCoMo. Although I did not send any new year greetings from my i-mode handset, I was aware of those wireless operators ran many TV commercials asking the subscribers to refrain from calling or sending email from mobile phones during the very first hours on the new year day. It was true that the operators restricted the use of their services during that time period to avoid their networks to go down, but I think the word "ration" was a little bit too strong to describe the situation. We need to take Japanese culture/custom into account. The new year day is the most important holiday in Japan. We send a lot of postal greeting cards to relatives, friends, bosses, colleagues and clients as those who in the West send Christmas cards. However, there is a difference between Christmas cards and the Japanese new year greeting cards. The post office guarantees to deliver the new year greeting cards on the new year day if we mail those cards before a certain date in December. It is like a ritual for many of us to read the cards in the morning of the new year day. It is also considered as bad manners if your greeting cards arrives later. The younger generation, who cannot live without "Keitai" the mobile phones, has substituted the new year greeting cards with phone calls and short email messages from their mobile devices. They make 'Happy New Year' calls and exchange short new year messages among friends during the very early morning hours on the new year day. I guess that you've got to send those messages (which just say a happy new year) as soon as possible if you want to show them that they are important to you. According to the reports from some popular Japanese chat rooms, it was actually less than an hour for people to have had trouble connecting to the wireless networks. There seemed no restriction for DoCoMo's FOMA, the new 3G service because of its tiny subscriber population. I think it is O.K. or even necessary for the wireless operators to restrict the use of their networks for a short time if there is justification such as making a room for emergency communication in the time of disaster. However, the new year day's spike in the mobile phone usage is something those operators have been anticipated and can prepare for it. IMHO, instead of spending big money on those TV spots, they should have increased the network capacities. Also, there are some easy measures that the operators should take to ease the new year day network congestion. For example, some operators doesn't allow BCC in their email, therefore people have to write and sent a message to each receiver -- it would strain the mail servers unnecessary. Some of the operators offer a service to deliver email messages at a preset date and time. They should publicise the service more and make people to use it for the new year greetings. Naoki -- Naoki Yamamoto <naoki () matatabi com> in Yokohama, Japan Matatabi Digital Industry Report <http://www.matatabi.com> Gpg Fingerprint = B2A7 2A11 C50B DCC4 83EB 9311 607A FAE9 386B F070 Public Key available from <http://www.matatabi.com/naoki_pubkey.html>
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- IP: an answer to --: Any IP'ers in Japan willing to comment on this?: Japan rations new year mobile use David Farber (Jan 02)