This week we talk to Tareq Amin, Rakuten Mobile CTO and Group EVP and CAO of Rakuten, about his vision for (and reality of) a fully-virtualized, cloud-native network. Amin reflects on his time at Reliance Jio, discusses the future of Open RAN, and shares his motto--which doesn't easily translate to Japanese.
Xilinx previously tapped by Telefónica in its push for massive Open RAN deployments
This week San Jose-based Xilinx announced it's shipping a T1 Telco Accelerator Card designed for 5G Open RAN networks with a specific focus on simplifying Open RAN fronthaul termination at an open...
Partnership includes Open RAN and a drive toward advanced network automation
As it continues to pursue integration of Open RAN technologies into its multi-national network footprint, Telefónica Global CTIO Enrique Blanco and Rakuten Mobile CTO and CAO Tareq Amin discussed a newly announced partnership that...
T-Mobile's 600 MHz standalone 5G network
In Early August, T-Mobile claimed a world’s first with the launch of a nationwide standalone 5G network that uses its 600 MHz spectrum. T-Mo initially launched its 600 MHz 5G network last year and reached nationwide coverage--200 million people...
New Japanese market entrant Rakuten Mobile, a subsidiary of e-commerce giant Rakuten, expects to cover all the country’s population with its mobile service in 2021.
During an earnings call, Chairman and CEO Mickey Mikitani said that the company previously targeted full coverage in Japan by...
The U.K. government has asked Japan to help in the deployment of 5G networks in the country, according to a report by Nikkei Asian Review.
The request came after the U.K. government last week decided to ban Chinese vendor Huawei Technologies from supplying 5G equipment to U.K telcos.
Under the new...
Oracle: Operator standalone motivation is growing enterprise revenue
There's a school of thought around 5G that would suggest effective ROI and service monetization hinges on offering up new, differentiated applications to enterprise users. And to do that, operators need the full 5G feature set--enhanced mobile...
Rakuten looking to sell virtualized network architecture as a platform
New Japanese market entrant Rakuten Mobile, a subsidiary of e-commerce giant Rakuten, has established its international headquarters in Singapore, the operator said in a release.
The new hub will serve as the company’s development center for...
Open RAN, as the name implies, is meant to be open to multiple vendors, both hardware and software, that work together to achieve interoperability in accordance with an operator's needs. But as incumbent radio vendors like Nokia throw out terms like "open but integrated,"...
Japanese conglomerate Nippon Telegraph & Telephone (NTT), will take a 5% stake in compatriot electronics company NEC as part of an agreement to foster the development of 5G technology in Japan.
The agreement, estimated at 60 billion yen ($562 million), will make NTT the third-largest...

RCR Wireless News · Will 5G Change the World? Damiano Coletti, Airspan (Ep. 12)
Bringing 5G to verticals, open RAN update
Airspan Vice President of Strategy and Marketing Damiano Coletti discusses the company's work in developing 5G solutions for vertical industries as well as its open...
New Japanese market entrant Rakuten Mobile, a subsidiary of e-commerce giant Rakuten, is having talks with several governments around the world regarding the Rakuten Communications Platform (RCP), Tareq Amin, representative director, EVP and CTO of Rakuten Mobile, said in a recent press conference.
“It’s been...
Made in Japan--compatriot firms collaborate on standalone
Japanese mobile network operator Rakuten Mobile, a subsidiary of Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten, and NEC Corporation announced that the two companies have reached an agreement to jointly develop the containerized standalone (SA) 5G core network (5GC) to be used...
New Japanese mobile network entrant Rakuten Mobile, a subsidiary of Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten, announced it will delay the launch of commercial 5G services due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a release, Rakuten Mobile said that the 5G service originally planned for...
New Japanese market entrant Rakuten Mobile, a subsidiary of e-commerce giant Rakuten, has already activated a total of 4,738 radio stations in the country, which is more than the 3,432 initially planned, Rakuten Mobile chairman and CEO Mickey Mikitani said during a conference call...
Japan’s largest carrier, NTT DoCoMo, expects to attract 2.5 million subscribers in the 5G segment by March 2021, the operator said in its earnings statement.
The telco, which launched 5G service last month, said it signed up 14,000 5G users at end-March.
5G coverage is forecast to increase...
Cisco, Altiostar, WWT creating vRAN hardware/software/services bundle to drive 5G deployment
Building a virtualized radio access network built of best-of-breed components made interoperable through the work of groups like the O-RAN Alliance and Telecom Infra Project is seen as a way to drive 5G scale...
Rakuten Mobile exporting open network approach to other operators
Japanese company Rakuten Mobile announced the full-scale commercial launch of its mobile carrier service in the country.
Rakuten Mobile, a unit of e-commerce giant Rakuten, kicked off its commercial 4G service on April 8, becoming the fourth...
Japanese operator Rakuten Mobile, a subsidiary of e-commerce giant Rakuten, and NEC announced that they have begun production of a jointly developed 5G mobile communications system radio unit (RU), and that the first unit has been shipped.
Production started at NEC Platforms’ plant in Fukushima,...
Japanese carrier KDDI announced that it will launch its 5G wireless services on March 26 in 15 prefectures across the country.
The telco also said that it aims to expand its 5G offering nationwide in the summer.
KDDI also announced plans to install 10,000 base stations...
LG Uplus using Nokia SDN for 5G transport automation
In discussions around operator 5G capex, the radio access and core networks get most of the mindshare. However, in tandem with RAN and core investments, telcos are also investing in 5G transport in order to effectively...
Japanese wireless carrier SoftBank announced it expects to launch its 5G services on March 27, becoming the first of the country's three major mobile carriers to release details of its next-generation telecommunications service.
NTT Docomo and KDDI Corp. are also expected to soon unveil plans...
Japanese telco Rakuten Mobile, a unit of e-commerce giant Rakuten, has officially started accepting customer applications for its mobile service, scheduled to be launched next month.
Rakuten Mobile is initially launching a single unlimited plan with free service over the first 12 months for 3...
Japanese telco Rakuten Mobile is collaborating with Singaporean carrier TPG Telecom on a 5G technology partnership program to trial OpenRAN solutions in Singapore, the former said in a release.
Rakuten Mobile had launched what it claimed to be the world’s first end-to-end fully virtualized, cloud-native...