Suddenly, no signal.
It was working normally until yesterday.
You wonder, “Is it an outage? Or is it my phone?” Right. You do.
On social media too, you can see posts like “No signal since yesterday evening.” But the contents of those posts can’t be verified individually. The cause and the scope are unknown.
This article summarizes the order in which to check for yourself.
Conclusion: check in the order “yourself, then others around you, then official”
- Isolate whether it’s a problem with your own device
- See whether people or places around you are having the same problem
- Check the official notices to see whether any outage information is posted
Having an order keeps you from panicking for no reason.
1. Isolate your own device
First, try the simple things in order.
- Turn on airplane mode for 10 seconds, then turn it off
- Restart the phone
- Reinsert the SIM (for eSIM, check that the line is active)
The detailed steps are in another article of ours (on troubleshooting weak phone signal).
If this fixes it, it wasn’t an outage but a temporary glitch on your device.
2. Check with people and places around you
Next, see whether the cause is only you.
- Ask people in the same place, or people on the same carrier
- Try changing your location a little (by a window, outdoors, etc.)
- Connect to Wi-Fi and see whether the internet itself works
There’s also a way to search real-time social media for reports from the same area. However, individual posts are not official information. Even if there are many posts, that alone doesn’t establish an outage, and the cause and scope are also unknown. Treat them as a reference only.
3. Look at the official notices
Information about outages is posted in the “Notices” section of the Rakuten Mobile official site.
What I could confirm on the official page is as follows.
- There is a list of the latest notices, and outage-related items are placed on pages under
/information/failure/ - Titles carry markers such as “【重要】” (Important), “（更新）” (Updated) and “【復旧】” (Restored)
- As an example, a notice about some users being unable to use, or having difficulty using, communication services due to Typhoon No. 25 was posted as “【復旧】” (Restored) (dated September 22, 2026, as of 8:40 p.m. on September 26)
On the other hand, in the notice list page I checked, the following are not written.
- The name of, or link to, a dedicated outage list page
- How to receive outage information as notifications
- Where to contact when you can’t connect
Even if nothing is listed in the notices, you can’t say for sure that no outage is occurring. It may also take time before something is posted (this is my own reading).
When it doesn’t seem to be an outage
If there’s no information in the notices and your own device seems fine, the cause could be the location or the line.
- If it lasts for days in the same place, it’s a signal issue. For how to request improvement from the official side, see our article on requesting a signal improvement from Rakuten Mobile
- Your area may have changed recently: the au roaming arrangement ended at the end of September 2026. See our article on what changes when au roaming ends
- Your device may not match the frequency bands: see our article on how to check phone band compatibility
Preparing for when you can’t reach anyone
When calls or data don’t work because of an outage, you may still need to make an important contact.
- Connect to Wi-Fi and get in touch through a messaging app
- Borrow a phone from someone nearby
- In an emergency, rely on a public phone or a nearby facility
It helps to know in advance where Wi-Fi is available.
Summary
- If you suddenly lose signal, check in the order yourself, then others around you, then official
- Official notices carry outage information. Outage items are under
/information/failure/and carry markers such as 【復旧】 (Restored) - Social media posts are not official information. The cause and scope are unknown
- The notice list page did not say how to receive notifications or where to contact
Not jumping to the conclusion that it’s an outage, and checking in order, is the shortest path.
Source: Rakuten Mobile official site
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This article contains machine translation. For official terms, please refer to the multilingual pages on the official Rakuten Mobile website.
If you have concerns about Rakuten Mobile's coverage area or signal conditions, you can inquire through the official signal improvement survey request form .
