[The Chosun Ilbo, April 7 2008] Cell Phone Glitch Bring Korea Closer for Some Japanese

Cell phone users in some areas of Tsushima, in Japan’s Nagasaki Prefecture, have wrongly been getting billed for international calls made from Korea although they made only local calls, according to the news site J-Cast.

The malfunction occurs on handsets subscribing to NTT DoCoMo’s international roaming service. Apparently the cell phones receive radio waves sent from a base station in Korea and are automatically switched into international call mode. A spokesman for NTT DoCoMo said 38 models have the problem and asked users to operate their cell phones manually to prevent an automatic switch.