Rakuten Mobile Selects Samsung as Nationwide 5G Open RAN Radio Provider in Japan

Samsung Electronics today announced that the company will supply Open RAN (O-RAN) compliant 5G radios to Rakuten Mobile, Inc. to support its nationwide mobile network across Japan. Samsung’s solutions will power Rakuten Mobile’s expansion of its fully virtualized, cloud-native Open RAN network, delivering enhanced mobile connectivity. Following extensive testing and validation, the companies expect to begin commercial deployment this year.

Rakuten Mobile’s selection of Samsung is a testament to the company’s virtualized RAN (vRAN) and O-RAN leadership, honed through years of experience in global, large-scale commercial deployments. Samsung’s O-RAN compliant radios will be seamlessly integrated in Rakuten Mobile’s network, another demonstration of O-RAN’s reliability in a multi-vendor environment.

Samsung will provide a full suite of O-RAN compliant radios, including low-band (700MHz) and mid-band (1.7GHz) solutions, as well as Massive MIMO radios supporting the 3.8GHz band. The company’s compact and lightweight radios can be easily mounted on buildings and poles, enabling seamless installation and capacity enhancements in dense urban environments. Furthermore, Samsung’s advanced, energy-efficient Massive MIMO solutions will accelerate Rakuten Mobile’s network capacity, ensuring high-speed 5G connectivity and a more reliable mobile experience for its customers, even in high-traffic areas.

“Rakuten Mobile has made continuous efforts in delivering best-in-class mobile services to our customers through various endeavors such as expanding 5G coverage and optimizing network performance,” said Sharad Sriwastawa, co-CEO of Rakuten Mobile and President of Rakuten Symphony. “By working together with our leading Open RAN partner Samsung, we are looking forward to our continued collaboration in expanding Open RAN deployment globally, on top of adding momentum to accelerating 5G deployments in Japan.”

“Samsung is proud to join forces with Rakuten Mobile as we harness our collective capabilities to drive next-generation connectivity through industry-leading solutions,” said Angelo Jeongho Park, Executive Vice President and Head of Global Sales & Marketing, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics. “This underscores Samsung’s successful entry into a new customer partnership and further solidifies our Open RAN leadership. We expect to bolster our joint efforts with Rakuten Mobile to make greater strides on the global stage by embracing AI and openness.”

Samsung Networks has pioneered the successful delivery of 5G end-to-end solutions, including chipsets, radios and cores. Through ongoing research and development, Samsung is driving the industry to advance 5G networks and paving the way for 6G and beyond with its market-leading product portfolio, from purpose-built RAN, vRAN, Open RAN, AI-RAN and core to private network solutions and AI-powered automation tools and applications. The company currently provides innovative network solutions to mobile operators that deliver boundless connectivity to hundreds of millions of users worldwide.