Japan's Telecommunications Carriers Enhance Disaster Response with On-site Training for Joint Use of Marine Vessels

Tokyo, March 7, 2025 - Japan's eight telecommunications companies – Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, NTT East, NTT West, NTT DOCOMO and NTT Communications (the NTT Group), KDDI Corporation, SoftBank Corp. and Rakuten Mobile – conducted on-site training for the joint use of marine vessels from March 4 to 7, 2025, as part of their cooperative framework launched on December 1, 2024, aimed at ensuring the rapid restoration of communication networks in the event of large-scale disasters. The drill was held in Nagasaki City, Nagasaki Prefecture.

The training was conducted on the cable-laying vessel KIZUNA, which is owned by the NTT Group. Mobile network operators conducted training for the installation of shipboard base stations from March 4 to 6, while fixed-line operators conducted drills for the transportation of supplies on March 7. The exercise, which assumed the occurrence of a large-scale disaster, confirmed that the processes for installing base stations, as well as transporting and unloading equipment and supplies, was carried out smoothly.

Moving forward, the companies will continue to strengthen inter-operator cooperation and work to ensure the rapid recovery of communication networks during disasters.

About NTT

NTT contributes to a sustainable society through the power of innovation. We are a leading global technology company providing services to consumers and businesses as a mobile operator, infrastructure, networks, applications, and consulting provider. Our offerings include digital business consulting, managed application services, workplace and cloud solutions, data center and edge computing, all supported by our deep global industry expertise. We are over $97B in revenue and 330,000 employees, with $3.6B in annual R&D investments. Our operations span across 80+ countries and regions, allowing us to serve clients in over 190 of them. We serve over 75% of Fortune Global 100 companies, thousands of other enterprise and government clients and millions of consumers.

About KDDI

KDDI is a telecommunication service provider in Japan, offering multitude of services to individual customers through its "au", "UQ mobile" and "povo" brands, and to corporate customers through its "KDDI BUISNESS" brand.
In May 2022, KDDI had stated "KDDI VISION 2030: The creation of a society in which anyone can make their dreams a reality, by enhancing the power to connect". Under this vision, KDDI is promoting its business strategy in the Mid-Term Management Strategy (FY2022–FY2025), defined as the "Satellite Growth Strategy". With a focus on 5G communications, data-driven practices, and generative AI, KDDI will accelerate business growth by providing value-added services in the growth areas of DX, finance, energy, and life transformation (LX) which encompasses five areas of future growth (Mobility, Sports/Entertainment, Web3/Metaverse, Healthcare, and Space).
Placing "sustainability management" at the core, KDDI will aim to achieve the sustainable growth of society and the enhancement of corporate value together with our partners, by harnessing the "Satellite Growth Strategy" and strengthening the management base.

About SoftBank Corp.

Guided by the SoftBank Group's corporate philosophy, "Information Revolution – Happiness for everyone," SoftBank Corp. (TOKYO: 9434) operates telecommunications and IT businesses in Japan and globally. Building on its strong business foundation, SoftBank Corp. is expanding into non-telecom fields in line with its "Beyond Carrier" growth strategy while further growing its telecom business by harnessing the power of 5G/6G, IoT, Digital Twin and Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) solutions, including High Altitude Platform Station (HAPS)-based stratospheric telecommunications. While constructing AI data centers and developing homegrown LLMs specialized for the Japanese language with 1 trillion parameters, SoftBank is integrating AI with radio access networks (AI-RAN), with the aim of becoming a provider of next-generation social infrastructure. To learn more, please visit https://www.softbank.jp/en/.

About Rakuten Mobile

Rakuten Mobile, Inc. is a Rakuten Group company responsible for mobile communications, centered on its mobile network operator (MNO) business. Through continuous innovation and the deployment of advanced technology, Rakuten Mobile aims to redefine expectations in the mobile communications industry in order to provide appealing and convenient services for diverse customer needs.