Rakuten Mobile rolled out its cloud-native 5G network across Japan, backed by an open radio access network (RAN) kit courtesy of 1Finity.
The Fujitsu networking arm provided Rakuten with its 44R21 radio unit (RU) to support the operator's strategic 5G Sub6 (3.7 GHz) network expansion, touting the unit's compact and lightweight form factor.
The 1Finity radio kit was integrated with Rakuten Mobile’s core network management platform and virtualized centralized unit/distributed unit (vCU/DU) technology from Rakuten's Symphony software branch.
Completed in May, the rollout wraps up a venture first announced in March 2025. The two firms are concurrently rolling out massive multiple-input, multiple-output (mMIMO) radios on another open RAN venture utilizing the 1Finity 32A37 mMIMO O-RU operating in the 3.7 GHz band and based on Qualcomm Dragonwing QRU100 platforms, echoing Qualcomm-based RAN deployments from the likes of Verizon.
Sudhakar Pandey, head of Rakuten Mobile’s RAN department, commented that 1Finity's radios were a key component of Rakuten's aim to build "the most advanced and efficient cloud-native 5G network.
“Having recently achieved a significant milestone by surpassing 10 million subscribers, we remain committed to delivering even more high-quality services that enrich our customers' lives,” Pandey added.
“Our continued work with Rakuten Mobile enables us to support their goals of building a sustainable, open 5G architecture to deliver a high-quality customer experience,” Patrik Eriksson, VP and head of mobile systems at 1Finity, added. “This is yet another example of how 1Finity is driving global open RAN adoption with a robust portfolio of high-performance, energy-efficient radio units.”
With the Rakuten announcement, 1Finity seems to go from strength to strength following its spin-out from Fujitsu last summer. That move merged together several of the Japanese giant’s branches, including its network service engineering, telecoms networks, and Mobile Techno units.
The firm offers optical and wireless hardware, along with software and services, with former NTT Group veteran and Fujitsu SEVP Masaaki Moribayashi serving as its CEO. Its first major open optical line system (OLS), the Ultra Optical System L1000/L2000 OLS, was launched in February. The offering is designed to optimize managed fiber services, with 1Finity spinning its use for the ongoing AI scale-out underway in the networking space.
Source: https://www.sdxcentral.com/news/rakuten-mobile-expands-5g-network-with-1finity-open-ran-kit/
