KDDI Corp., the provider of the "au" mobile service, said voice calls had been disrupted from around 9 p.m. Wednesday due to equipment failure but were restored about 45 minutes later, following a large-scale network outage that spanned several days in early July.

The second-largest mobile carrier by subscribers in Japan said the disruption Wednesday night occurred in a part of the eastern region of the country but did not affect data services.

KDDI said the disruption also affected its low-cost UQ Mobile brand and its lower-priced "povo" wireless customers.

==Kyodo

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