Kumamoto quake cripples telecoms, Japan deploys Starlink and free Wi‑Fi

The July 28 2026 Kumamoto earthquake caused extensive damage to telecommunications infrastructure. KDDI reported over 11,500 fixed‑line and 71 dedicated‑line outages, while base stations of KDDI (77), NTT Docomo (3), SoftBank (6) and Rakuten Mobile (10) were knocked out, disrupting emergency calls in many districts.

The Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications activated an emergency response team, dispatched staff to prefectural offices and loaned one Starlink satellite terminal each to the cities of Uto and Uki to restore connectivity. The ministry also requested major digital platforms—including Google, LINE Yahoo, Meta, X and TikTok—to curb the spread of false information.

Carriers introduced “JAPAN Roaming”, enabling users to switch to other operators’ networks for voice, data and SMS services, and the government opened a free public Wi‑Fi network named “00000JAPAN” across the prefecture. Additional support included free Wi‑Fi hotspots and inter‑carrier roaming arrangements to aid recovery.