Japanese mobile phone companies are limiting access to their services over the new year.

The firms fear that a surge in calls and text messages to pass on new year greetings will paralyse their networks.

Japan's leading mobile phone operators - NTTDoCoMo, Japan Telecom and KDDI - posted messages on their websites informing users of the limits.

"We plan to temporarily restrict access," NTT's message read, "we would appreciate it if our subscribers were to avoid calling during the hours."

Going down

NTTDoCoMo said that customers will only be able to connect once for every several tries for about two hours into the new year.

The telecoms firm - which has more than eight million subscribers - will reduce capacity by 87%, according to Japan's Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper.

Its rival, KDDI, reportedly plans to allow only one of every five attempts to call, text or e-mail.

The cut in services will last for about two hours.