Rakuten Mobile said that these 5G upgrades have been implemented in the Kanto region, which includes the Greater Tokyo Area
Japanese operator Rakuten Mobile has significantly expanded its 5G (Sub6) network coverage in the Kanto region, which includes the Greater Tokyo Area, achieving a 110% increase since January 2024.
In a release, the Asian carrier noted that this growth far exceeds the company’s original target of a 60% expansion by the end of the year.
The improved coverage is the result of multiple initiatives, including software upgrades that have boosted the traffic capacity of Rakuten Mobile’s 5G base stations. Additionally, radio transmission output has been enhanced following regulatory changes that eased restrictions on interference between mobile networks and satellite communications in shared frequency bands.
Similar upgrades have been implemented in the Nagoya and Osaka regions, where Rakuten Mobile has increased 5G traffic per cell and enhanced the capacity of its 5G base stations to improve network quality.
Since the introduction of its 5G services in September 2020, Rakuten Mobile had deployed a total of 17,494 outdoor 5G base stations across Japan’s 47 prefectures as of September 2024. Over 80% of the network utilizes Massive MIMO technology, which benefits from the telco’s fully virtualized, cloud-native infrastructure built on Open RAN principles. This architecture allows Rakuten Mobile to extend advanced features like beamforming in Massive MIMO through software updates on its virtualized platform.
Rakuten Mobile also said it plans to continue expanding its 5G coverage and base station capacity in regions such as Kyushu and Okinawa, beginning in January 2025.
In June, Rakuten Mobile had announced the launch of commercial services using the so-called “platinum band” previously allocated by the Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications in 2023.
Rakuten Mobile noted that it has launched commercial services using this new spectrum in the 700 MHz band leveraging the expertise gained by building its nationwide fully virtualized mobile network based on Open RAN standards in the 1.7 GHz band.
Rakuten Mobile had said it will continue to expand services via the 700 MHz band using its network of base stations.
The telco noted that the spectrum in the 700 MHz platinum band offers better indoor building penetration and underground connectivity
Rakuten Mobile highlighted it expects to have 10,661 specific base stations operating in the 700 MHz band by March 2033.
