Written by Wei Shi
13 November 2020
A key product Rakuten has lately promoted heavily is RCP (short for Rakuten Communications Platform), a cloud-native platform combining “the latest technology in virtualization and automation, including containers and microservices”. Rakuten aims to bring what they have learned in Japan to the global market where it can serve CSPs in other markets to “develop open networks”. RCP’s current partners include Telefonica, STC (Saudi Telecom Company), and Tech Mahindra.
Amin believe RCP will have the capability to disrupt the enterprise and private network market too, as it would largely reduce the cost of deployment of private networks. Another offerings to be launched early next year will be the enterprise version of its Rakuten Link (which is consumer facing now), called E-Link (“E” for enterprise). This new business application will have all the features of Zoom (the platform on which this analyst call took place) in addition to carrier mail, cloud storage and other features corporate users would ask for.
RCP’s main platform is ready and will be in the shape to conduct proof of concept implementation by the beginning of next year. When answering Telecoms.com’s question on Rakuten’s investment in Altiostar and the potential conflict of interest when Altiostar is treated differently from other OpenRAN vendors as Rakuten promotes RCP, Amin claimed Altiostar’s technology capabilities are superior, which convinced him to make the investment, and the company has a time to market advantage. However, Amin said, RCP customers will be able to decide whether they want to use Altiostar or they prefer other vendors.
Throughout the call, Amin worked hard to convinced the analysts present that despite the heavy investment needed to roll out its 4G and 5G networks, and the small number of subscribers it has attracted, Rakuten’s plan is still on course to achieve its target of disrupting the Japanese mobile market. The company is banking high hopes on new products like RCP to disrupt more sectors, including the enterprise market, and to become a solution provider to CSPs in other parts of the world.
telecoms.com/507477/...-record-and-promises-more-disruptions/