Rakuten wesentlich besser als Rocket

Japanese operator Rakuten Mobile is to produce its cloud-based 5G system with NEC after a joint development project.

Rakuten and NEC said in Tokyo this morning that they have started production of the open radio access network (RAN) units at a factory in Fukushima, the city hit by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011.

Tareq Amin, CTO of Rakuten Mobile, said: “With the launch of production of the 5G radio unit [RU], we will begin work on the construction of our 5G base stations and will aim to provide our subscribers with a cost efficient, highly secure, high quality 5G service.”

Rakuten, owned by a Japanese electronic commerce and online retailing company, is modelling its launch on that of Reliance Jio, the Indian company that launched its 4G-only service in 2016 and has since devastated the Indian mobile market. Amin is a former CTO of Jio.

“NEC’s 5G RU, developed and produced in Japan, will play a very important role in Rakuten Mobile’s fully virtualised cloud-native mobile network,” said Amin at this morning’s announcement.

www.capacitymedia.com/articles/3825160/...head-of-june-launch

www.telecomtv.com/content/rakuten/

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blog.rakutenadvertising.com/de-de/...ie-neue-e-commerce-norm/

WHO and Rakuten Viber fight COVID-19 misinformation with interactive chatbot
31 March 2020

A new WHO interactive chatbot on Rakuten Viber aims to get accurate information about COVID-19 to people in multiple languages.

The partnership with Rakuten Viber gives WHO the potential to reach over 1 billion people in their local language directly through their mobile phones.

“WHO’s aim is to reach as many people as possible with reliable health information through innovative digital technology. Information is powerful and can help save lives during this pandemic,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

Once subscribed to the WHO Viber chatbot, users will receive notifications with the latest news and information directly from WHO. Users can also learn how to protect themselves and test their knowledge on coronavirus through an interactive quiz that helps bust myths. Another goal of the partnership is to fight misinformation.

The chatbot is freely available and launches today in English, Russian and Arabic with more than 20 languages to be added.

www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/...-interactive-chatbot

Robinhood vs Acorns: Robo-Advisor Comparison Reviews
Last Updated on March 16, 2020

thetokenist.io/robinhood-vs-acorns/

Nicholas Pongratz
Sunday, March 15, 2020, 09:30

Viber, the cross-platform voice over IP and instant messaging software application operated by Japanese multinational company Rakuten, says it has increased development resources to meet the growing needs of families, colleagues and schools for virtual contact.

Since Friday, up to 10 people can join a conversation at a time, writes media1.hu.

“We are committed to finding more ways for people to join groups in this challenging time without being physically in the same place,” said Ofir Eyal, operations director at Rakuten Viber.

“With the spread of the coronavirus, more and more people are working remotely, and we want to provide them with a safe and protected environment where they can stay in touch with their loved ones and continue to work seamlessly from anywhere in the world,” media1.hu quotes Eyal as saying.

bbj.hu/news/viber-improves-capabilities-for-coronavirus_179736

first-quarter 2020 outlook despite coronavirus woes is an added positive.

Lyft Gains on Active Rider Growth and Halo Cars Acquisition
Zacks•March 30, 2020

We recently issued an updated report on Lyft, Inc. LYFT. Factors like strong rise in Active Riders and acquisition of Halo Cars are impressive.

Lyft, which competes with Uber UBER in the ride-hailing market, has been towel served by the growth in Active Riders. Evidently, total revenues soared 68% in 2019 backed by a double digit growth in revenue. With the uptrend in Active Riders anticipated to continue, the company expects first-quarter revenues between $1,055 million and $1,060 million. The top line figure indicates year-over-year surge of 36-37%. The company's decision to stick to the first-quarter 2020 outlook despite coronavirus woes is an added positive.

finance.yahoo.com/news/...-active-rider-growth-144802144.html

Devitt keeps his Buy rating on Lyft, along with a $42 price target. The implication for investors? Possible upside of 91%.

Overall, the Street remains firmly on Lyft’s side. 21 Buys and 5 Holds add up to a Strong buy consensus rating. The average price target is $56.41 and could provide investors with upside of a considerable 156%, should it be met in the year ahead.

finance.yahoo.com/news/...t-reiterates-bullish-231709902.html

Published 3rd April 2020
A week before launch, Rakuten is looking to share its experience abroad

Rakuten Mobile will finally launch its first commercial 4G services on April 8, with an unlimited data plan priced at around $28 a month (though only within the company’s somewhat limited footprint – when roaming, users are capped at 2GB a month). The company has its eyes on markets beyond its own direct mobile base however. Like a select group of operators before it, such as SK Telecom of South Korea, it believes it can take its experience of integrating and deploying a radical new architecture to the wider MNO community, in a mixture of contributions to open platforms, and revenue-generating services. CTO Tareq Amin thinks Rakuten has unique experience which is of high interest to others. It has rolled…

rethinkresearch.biz/articles/...-share-its-experience-abroad/

Era of Mobile Networking

Less than 2 years : Amount of time it has taken Rakuten to build its network from nothing. The company was granted spectrum by the Japanese government in 2018.

15 minute basestation installation : Basestations used to be a challenge to install with significant site work necessary along with a week-long build out process. But Rakuten locates most of the basestation software in the cloud, so all that’s required at the base station is a remote radio head with our vRAN software. This can be installed in 15 minutes, compared to days or weeks for legacy basestations.

4,000+ basestations: The short install time was one of the key reasons, that Rakuten was able to cost effectively deploy between 4,000 and 5,000 basestations to build out the RF network it needed to deliver service across Japan. The minimalistic, software-based basestation design is combined with extensive automation which simplifies ongoing maintenance to the point where Rakuten believes only few hundred people will be needed to maintain and manage this infrastructure.

Thousands of Edge Data Centers: Moving computing out to the network edge is another way to increase network agility and offer low-latency services. Rakuten has created “edge clouds” to support distributed units and the termination of the user plane workloads. Control plane functionality is consolidated at two centralized data centers.

Half the cost: This network architecture costs less and is much less expensive to operate, which is why Rakuten can estimate a 5G cost of service that is up to 60% less expensive than traditional networks.

www.altiostar.com/...aunching-a-new-era-of-mobile-networking/

April 4, 2020

Scott Devitt, a 5-star Stifel analyst, said, “The agreement with Enstar effectively transfers Lyft’s primary auto insurance liabilities from the period of October 2015 to September 2018 to Enstar for a consideration of $465mm, with approximately 80% of the consideration paid for from Lyft’s restricted cash, cash equivalents, and investments that were previously held on Lyft’s balance sheet as collateral against these legacy claims.

Devitt doesn’t believe the transaction should impact Lyft’s liquidity position. The company exited 2019 with almost $2.9 billion in unrestricted cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments, and despite the current macro environment, Devitt expects Lyft to see out 2020 with “a significant cash cushion even with significant bookings deterioration.

Devitt keeps his Buy rating on Lyft, along with a $42 price target.

finance.yahoo.com/news/...t-reiterates-bullish-231709902.html

www.futurezone.de/entertainment/streaming/...inderleicht.html

Rakuten Ichiba Japan Marketplace Opens Up to Shopify Merchants through new service provided by Rakuten and Shopify collaboration

Tokyo, April 7, 2020 - Rakuten, Inc., operator of the Japan-based internet shopping mall Rakuten Ichiba, and Shopify Inc., Canada-based operator of Shopify, the world’s top multichannel commerce platform, today announced that they are now offering store support services that will empower Shopify merchants in the U.S. and Japan to operate e-commerce stores on Rakuten Ichiba through the Shopify admin panel.

Shopify now also offers its merchants a Rakuten Ichiba app which allows them to register products, manage inventory and orders for stores on Rakuten Ichiba*1, making it possible for Shopify merchants to easily add Rakuten Ichiba as a new sales channel and expand their market.

For U.S. based Shopify merchants, the ability to operate local stores on Rakuten Ichiba through Shopify allows them to expand their business in Japan with relative ease. It also provides Rakuten Ichiba users greater opportunities to buy overseas products, including major global brands that are difficult to obtain in Japan.

global.rakuten.com/corp/news/press/2020/...=4&category=ec
Less

Rakuten Mobile and Rakuten AirMap to Carry Out Mobile Base Station Inspections Utilizing Drones
- Rakuten Mobile to accelerate service area expansion by leveraging synergies within the Rakuten Group to improve efficiency of completion inspections.

Tokyo, April 6, 2020 - Rakuten Mobile, Inc. today announced that it will collaborate with Rakuten Group company Rakuten AirMap, Inc., which provides solutions supporting safe and compliant drone operations to enterprises, airspace authorities and drone operators in Japan, in using drones to conduct completion inspections of base stations for its mobile network.

Rakuten AirMap has been instrumental in establishing the infrastructure for safe and scalable drone use in Japan and will leverage its expertise in completion inspections to contribute to the growth of drone applications in business. The two companies are also looking into the use of drone-based inspections during natural disasters and other emergency situations.

Rakuten Mobile will continue to leverage drones and a variety of technologies to create safe, secure and easy-to-use services that offer a greater level of convenience to the lives of its customers.

global.rakuten.com/corp/news/press/2020/0406_01.html

What is Rakuten TV on Samsung TV Plus?

Samsung TV Plus is an app launched by Samsung Electronics for Smart TVs to offer a unique experience for linear viewing behavior (TV channels).

Rakuten TV has created four channels on Samsung TV Plus to offer users a laid-back, TV viewing experience across four genres: Action Movies, Comedy Movies, Drama Movies and Spotlight Movies and TV Series.

Our channels, created especially to give you a taste of the Rakuten TV experience, will bring you entire movies and series for FREE, streaming 24/7.

Our channels, created especially to give you a taste of the Rakuten TV experience, will bring you entire movies and series for FREE, streaming 24/7.

help.rakuten.tv/hc/en-gb/articles/115003950169-Samsung-TV-Plus

The announced three weeks for a take-over of Altiostar are near?

Rakuten Mobile’s CTO says RAN wasn’t as troublesome as other things: Special Report on Automation
by
Linda Hardesty |
Mar 22, 2020 1:21pm

Amin said Rakuten acted as a systems integrator for its own network. And it had to orchestrate all the pieces and parts together from the virtualized core to the virtualized RAN, to the back-office systems. “It was taxing. We really had to become the glue for everybody.”

It was the little things that caused some of the biggest headaches. For instance, working with the new BSS/OSS system for policy and charging was a challenge. The company is actually planning to acquire a start-up BSS/OSS company that it worked with on the project. Amin refused to name the company at this point because the deal is in final negotiation stages. But he said to look for an announcement in about three weeks.

www.fiercewireless.com/operators/...special-report-automation

Anzahl der Unique User IDs bei Viber bis Dezember 2019
Veröffentlicht vonL. Rabe, 17.02.2020

Diese Statistik zeigt die Anzahl Unique IDs bei Viber in ausgewählten Monaten zwischen März 2015 und Dezember 2019. Im Dezember 2019 lag die Anzahl der Unique IDs des Chat-Dienstes für Smartphones und Desktop-PCs, mit dem auch telefoniert werden kann, bei rund 1,15 Milliarden.

de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/...tzer-ids-bei-viber/

von Rakuten Mobile:

www.n-tv.de/politik/...n-sieben-Regionen-article21698521.html

Denn vermutlich ist nicht jeder so internetaffin, dass das ausschließlich online abgehen kann.

blog.rakutenadvertising.com/...s/covid-19-engaging-audiences/

Rakuten Mobile Announces Full-Scale Commercial Launch; Unveils Enhanced “Rakuten UN-LIMIT 2.0” Service Plan

Tokyo, April 8, 2020 – Rakuten Mobile, Inc. today announced the full-scale commercial launch of its mobile carrier service. Alongside this announcement, the company also unveiled the enhanced “Rakuten UN-LIMIT 2.0” plan, its unlimited mobile service plan available for the monthly fee of 2,980 yen. In light of growing data demands spurred by the recent expansion of telework and online education needs, the upgraded Rakuten UN-LIMIT 2.0 plan offers customers 5GB of data per month when roaming in domestic partner areas and increases the maximum data transmission speed in these partner areas after using up the allocated 5GB to 1Mbps. Compared to the 2GB of domestic partner area data roaming and maximum 128kbps offered by the previous version of the Rakuten UN-LIMIT plan, this increase is designed to better serve customers and meet the growing demand for mobile services. The maximum 1Mbps data speed after the allotted roaming data is used up will be available from April 8, with the 5GB of roaming data becoming available from April 22, for all Rakuten UN-LIMIT customers.

global.rakuten.com/corp/news/press/2020/...gory=corp%20mobile

erreichten höheren Akzeptanz des neuen Angebots zumindest in der Anfangszeit höhere Kosten beim Zukauf von Datenkapazitäten gegenüber.

Wie schnell das eigene Netz wachsen kann, lässt sich von meiner Stelle aus, nur schwer prognostizieren.

Mickey Mikitani, Chairman and CEO of Rakuten, Inc., and Representative Director, Chairman and CEO of Rakuten Mobile, Inc. commented:

'With today's full-scale commercial launch of Rakuten Mobile, I am very proud and excited to bring our customers the enhanced Rakuten UN-LIMIT 2.0 service plan. This will offer our customers access to roaming in Japan with up to 5GB of data, up from the 2GB we announced last month, and, if they exhaust that data, offer them unlimited access to 1Mbps data transmission speeds, up from 128kbps.
Japan is the first country in the world to offer a mobile service through a fully virtualized mobile network. By offering significant savings to our customers with a low-priced and convenient service, we aim to reduce the household cost of mobile services and encourage consumer spending, contributing to the overall health of Japan's national economy.

With the Rakuten Group's combined strengths of the Rakuten Ecosystem and membership, we aim to provide our customers with a mobile service unmatched by any other. Please look forward to more great things from Rakuten Mobile!'

www.marketscreener.com/...-ldquo-Rakuten-UN-LIMIT-2-30382057/

But best message of today: „Rakuten Mobile plans to expand its own network through the country's 47 prefectures by March next year.“

english.kyodonews.net/news/2020/04/...e-service-in-japan.html

Despite its efforts to substantially lower mobile fees, the fourth major mobile phone operator rents KDDI's nationwide network for its services in large swathes of Japan and limits free data usage up to 2 gigabytes per month in those areas.

The company said Wednesday it will raise the free data usage limit to 5 gigabytes per month from April 22 in the areas where Rakuten's own network is not available, citing a recent climb in data transmission volume caused by increased remote work and online learning with people staying home during the coronavirus outbreak.

Rakuten Mobile plans to expand its own network through the country's 47 prefectures by March next year.

In addition to serving increased need for online services during the pandemic, Rakuten Mobile’s pricing may also help it compete against Japan’s largest carriers–NTT Docomo, KDDI and SoftBank. Rakuten Mobile uses what the company says is the world’s first virtualized mobile network, which requires less hardware infrastructure, lowering deployments costs and in turn allowing the company to offer more affordable rates.

Last year, the company said it will have a total of 4,000 edge servers in Japan by the mobile service’s launch. Rakuten Mobile expects its network to cover all of Japan by next March.

Called Rakuten UN-LIMIT 2.0, the company’s current plan gives users 5GB of roaming data in areas where Rakuten Mobile has partners, and unlimited roaming data at a maximum speed of 1Mbps after the limit is reached. The original Rakuten UN-LIMIT plan offered 2GB of domestic roaming, and maximum 128kbps speed.

techcrunch.com/2020/04/08/...ta-plan-fully-launches-in-japan/

„Altiostar Networks has a post-money valuation in the range of $1B to $10B as of May 8, 2019 according to PrivCo. Sign up for a free trial to view exact valuation and search companies with similar valuations.“

www.crunchbase.com/organization/...-and-trademarks-by-ipqwery