Rakuten pioneers cloud-native mobile networking

Many operators aim to migrate to cloud-native platforms, often in parallel with a 5G deployment, but only one has achieved this in a fully commercial network so far. Rakuten Mobile in Japan has undergone a challenging roll-out to seize an early-mover advantage with its open, multi-vendor, container-based 4G/5G network.

This case study provides:

• detailed analysis of the commercial drivers behind Rakuten Mobile’s ambitious network deployment
• a quantification of the costs, overheads and targeted revenue of the cloud-native approach
• an assessment of how far the new architecture will improve Rakuten’s competitive position in Japan, and the lessons for operators in other countries.