(Associated Press via NewsEdge) Japanese mobile operator Softbank Mobile, which aggressively slashed its prices last week to undercut rivals, was warned by government officials after a rush of customers wanting to switch to its service caused a system crash over the weekend.
Softbank stopped accepting new customers when its computer system could not handle the barrage of new applications following the arrival of number portability in Japan last week, a system that lets people keep the same numbers when they switch carriers.
'This is regrettable because it comes at a time when we expect further progress in services (due to the introduction of number portability),' Vice Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Takatoshi Matsuda told reporters.
The ministry received a report on the situation from Softbank executives, who were told to make sure their systems could handle the expected flow in applications, Matsuda said.
Softbank's president, the technology mogul Masayoshi Son, apologized to customers and said the company had taken measures to increase its system capacity.
'We have made a lot of customers wait "&brkbar; for that, I am sorry,' Son said at a press conference. The company did not say how many customers had tried to enroll.
Softbank bought British carrier Vodafone's mobile business in Japan earlier this year and has jumped on number portability as a chance to catch up with larger competitors like NTT DoCoMo and KDDI Corp.
Last week, Softbank rolled out an aggressive new fee system that featured free calls and instant messages between subscribers, and lowered basic monthly fees, in some cases by 70%.
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