Rakuten Mobile – a better customer experience with its fully virtualised infrastructure

Summary

Since launching in 2018, Rakuten Mobile has grown into a serious competitor among Japan's established telecom operators by betting entirely on virtualised network infrastructure. The carrier has pushed toward near-universal population coverage on its 4G network while continuing to expand 5G base station deployment across the country, positioning itself as a low-cost disruptor in an otherwise mature and crowded market.

Full network virtualisation, delivered as the world's first end-to-end virtualised mobile network, allows Rakuten to hold down both capital and operating expenditure while maintaining price competitiveness against larger incumbents. The Rakuten Communications Platform follows, a cloud-native telco offering that lets other operators, governments, and enterprises build their own secure mobile networks, opening a potential revenue stream well beyond Rakuten's own subscriber base.

Beyond infrastructure, Rakuten's broader ecosystem, spanning card, banking, and payment services, connects its mobile business to tens of millions of members, supported by employee-led quality improvement programs that keep day-to-day service delivery on track across the group's consumer touchpoints.

• How full network virtualisation lowers both CAPEX and OPEX for a challenger telco
• The Rakuten Communications Platform as a potential revenue stream beyond mobile subscribers

Can a fully virtualised network give a challenger telco a lasting cost and experience advantage over established incumbents?