Rakuten wesentlich besser als Rocket

Why telcos should embrace an open, horizontal cloud platform

September 11, 2023

There’s still industry-wide confusion around the terms cloud, cloud ready and cloud native. How do the three differ and what are the architectural changes that going cloud native entails for telcos? How can operators embrace an open, horizontal telecom cloud platform for greater flexibility, agility and innovation at scale? Rakuten Symphony’s Vivek Chadha gives his perspective on the cloud-native telco transformation journey, the challenges and the best approach.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsv3HpXQjXw

After graduating from university, I worked as a system engineer at a systems integration company and remained there for five years. When I thought about getting more involved in company management, I changed my career by moving to an accounting position at an IT venture company, where I worked for about eight years. Although I was hired into an accounting position, the company only had 30 employees. In addition to my focus on accounting, I was also in charge of all administrative departments, including human resources, general affairs, legal affairs and corporate planning. When I thought about my next career step, my interest in learning what large companies do led me to join Rakuten, as it is one of Japan’s leading IT companies. When I began my employment at Rakuten, I quickly realized its extensive magnitude. This was evident from the presence of skilled professionals in every administrative department, each possessing specialized knowledge. I have been fortunate to leverage their expertise to enhance my work. Despite being a large corporation, Rakuten is a company that works quickly and accomplishes its business under the motto of “Speed!! Speed!! Speed!!” This concept has led to Rakuten’s success and very much resonates with me.

Career development
I transitioned my career from being a system engineer to working in accounting. Subsequently, I came across Rakuten, where I am currently involved in managerial responsibilities within the accounting department. While in the accounting department, I also work with professionals in general affairs, legal affairs and human resources. This grants me valuable opportunities to increase my knowledge of intellectual property, compliance, labor management, security-related issues and other subjects. This allows me to update myself with the newest information constantly. I feel that such cumulative experiences have broadened the scope of my work, and it motivates me to try new things. Rakuten’s open corporate culture also provides me opportunities and an environment where we can learn and grow together, which is always stimulating. Moreover, participating in the variety of training programs Rakuten offers its employees have also been a significant boost to my career development.

Current environment
The atmosphere among my team members is exceptionally pleasant. As a manager tasked with organizing the department, I respect each member’s professionalism and approach to their work. At Rakuten, we believe that diversity is the driving force of innovation, and I think this idea is very important. Our team comprises of individuals with diverse strengths, personalities and potentials. Some excel when working independently, while others thrive through close communication with one another to enhance the team’s performance. Additionally, some members possess extensive international experience. This is why I focus on management that makes the most of each individual’s strengths. One of the great things about our team is its openness, which encourages members to share work-related news and other information during team meetings. I constantly remind myself, “I am who I am because of my team members.” I genuinely feel that everyone on my team takes responsibility and pride in their work.

Taku believes that one of the great things about working at Rakuten is its openness, encouraging active sharing among collaborating team members.

What are some things that being at Rakuten allows you to do?
Rakuten offers an environment where I can work with people from various departments in various businesses, which is both interesting and reflects the company’s large scale. For instance, when setting up a new company, the Post-Merger Integration team collaborates with the business leaders and the entire administrative department. On the other hand, when making revisions to a system, the headquarters accounting department, the business team and the technology team work together and coordinate with each other. Such collaboration builds internal ties within the company, and this is one of the unique aspects of Rakuten that enables us to create relationships to stay in contact with each other even after a project is completed. Currently, I am managing a total of seven businesses and their associated branches. Through effective communication with the individuals in each unit, I can grasp the current state of affairs within each organization.

Future goals
I enjoy regularly encountering new situations, which allows me to approach my daily work with a sincere admiration for Rakuten’s corporate philosophy of “Empowering people and society through innovation.” Since the accounting department receives a variety of information, it makes it easier to understand each department’s characteristics and advantages and expand on success cases by rolling them out to other business units. Looking ahead, I would like to continue working actively with a sense of speed in response to changes within and outside the company.

rakuten.today/people-culture/my-rakuten-experience-taku.html

Rakuten Securities Revolutionizing its Platform with TipRanks Tools

Mon, September 18, 2023 at 4:30 PM GMT+2

TipRanks Ltd. today announced that it will provide TipRanks' exclusive data, from October 2023, to Rakuten Securities, Inc., one of the two largest online brokerages in Japan. Rakuten Securities, Inc., which hosts an incredible nine million securities accounts, is displaying TipRanks' datasets, empowering investors to make smart, data-driven decisions. Rakuten Securities' clients will be able to explore TipRanks' top-level stock research tools to choose market-beating stocks.

TipRanks gives Japanese investors, in an industry first in Japan, access to the same data that the largest hedge funds use. Rakuten Securities' clients can quickly and easily find all the recent analyst ratings on a stock, along with the analysts' forecasted price targets, implied upsides or downsides, and analyst rating consensus. In addition, they can access customized, real-time lists of the most-rated stocks by analysts, giving them the means to discover the best stocks to invest in.

finance.yahoo.com/news/...ng-platform-tipranks-143000337.html

Rakuten Symphony’s North America CEO Azita Arvani departs company

Read more at:
telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/...ompany/103758674

Rakuten Symphony lost the CEO of its North American unit, Azita Arvani (pictured), just over a month after the head of the software platform Tareq Amin departed, replaced by Rakuten Mobile chairman Mickey Mikitani.

In a LinkedIn post, Arvani, who joined Rakuten Group in early 2020 as general manager for Americas, stated: “I have made the difficult decision to part ways with Rakuten. My journey with Rakuten has been a significant and transformative one.”

As the first mobile operator to build an end-to-end virtualised telecom infrastructure, she added the company achieved “remarkable milestones” and cultivated relationships with customers such as AT&T, Dish Networks, Telus and others.

The software unit’s sales dropped 18.5 per cent to $72 million in Q2, with Mikitani noting the quarterly figures tend to be uneven.

www.mobileworldlive.com/featured-content/...a-arvani-departs/

Notable departures from prominent top-level roles keep turning the spotlight on Japanese telco group Rakuten. Only a month after Tareq Amin abruptly left as CEO of Rakuten Mobile and its vendor offshoot Rakuten Symphony, the latter has now lost its CEO in North America, Azita Arvani. The announcement came from Arvani herself, who shared in a LinkedIn post that she has made “the difficult decision to part ways with Rakuten” after four years at the helm of Rakuten Symphony’s North American unit. She highlighted that during her time in charge of the business, the team had “laid the foundation for our business, achieving remarkable milestones and cultivating invaluable relationships with esteemed customers, such as AT&T, Dish Networks, Telus and numerous others”. Describing the experience with Rakuten as “significant” and “transformative”, Arvani claimed she had dedicated herself “wholeheartedly to our shared vision, pouring not only my time and effort but also my blood, sweat and tears into our collective mission… Every moment of this challenge brought me profound satisfaction, and I feel truly blessed to have had the opportunity to collaborate with such visionary customers on innovative projects”. Without citing a concrete reason for her departure, she explained it was time to embark on new career opportunities. The exact last day in her role remains unclear, and at the time of writing, Rakuten had not made any announcements related to the move.

What’s up with… SK Telecom & Netflix, Singtel, satellite 5G | TelecomTV

Symphony’s customers include AT&T, Dish, Telus and others

By Dan Jones Sep 18, 2023 11:30am

Arvani said that her time with the mobile software started in February 2020, “when I was the first executive in the Americas,” she wrote. She noted that Symphony’s customers include AT&T, Dish, Telus and others.

www.silverliningsinfo.com/apps-services/...ceo-ups-and-leaves

Major Players in This Report Include:
Amazon Web Services (AWS) (United States), Netflix, Inc.(United States), Google LLC(United States), Facebook (United States), Tencent Holdings Ltd. (China), Sony Corp. (Japan), King Digital Entertainment Ltd.( Ireland), Spotify Technology S.A.(Sweden), Rakuten, Inc. (Japan), CBS Corporation (United States)

Read more: www.digitaljournal.com/pr/news/...vices-rakuten#ixzz8DjLtxtlM



Major Players in This Report Include:
Amazon Web Services (AWS) (United States), Netflix, Inc.(United States), Google LLC(United States), Facebook (United States), Tencent Holdings Ltd. (China), Sony Corp. (Japan), King Digital Entertainment Ltd.( Ireland), Spotify Technology S.A.(Sweden), Rakuten, Inc. (Japan), CBS Corporation (United States)

Read more: www.digitaljournal.com/pr/news/...vices-rakuten#ixzz8DjLtxtlM

“What are your thoughts on requests by Rakuten Mobile, Inc. to reallocate a portion of the Platinum Band (mobile frequency band with strong connectivity) held by NTT DOCOMO, INC., KDDI CORPORATION, and SoftBank Corp.?

For 6 years from its entry into the mobile phone industry in 2006 to the time when it received Platinum Band allocation in 2012, SoftBank Corp. had requested the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) to allocate a portion of the Platinum Band, so we can understand Rakuten Mobile, Inc.'s position. However, the Platinum Band used by SoftBank Corp. has already been used by many customers. Hypothetically speaking, if a portion of SoftBank Corp.'s Platinum Band were to be reallocated, we would require a considerable preparation period to ensure that we would not cause any inconvenience to our customers who are currently using SoftBank Corp.'s Platinum Band.”

www.softbank.jp/en/corp/ir/documents/...y2022/q2_earnings_qa/

Mobilfunkstandard 5G

Harte Linie gegen Huawei – Berlin will „zweiten Fall Nord Stream“ verhindern
Die Bundesregierung will die Netzbetreiber zum Entfernen chinesischer Technologie zwingen. Das könnte weitreichende Folgen haben für die 5G-Netze und das Verhältnis zu Peking.

Philipp Alvares de Souza Soares, Dana Heide, Moritz Koch und Dietmar Neuerer 19.09.2023 - 18:00 Uhr

www.handelsblatt.com/politik/deutschland/...031t00000PCrtuAAD

AI is an emerging technology that is being used to combat complexity and improve customer experience in 5G networks and will be the topic that Anshul Bhatt, Rakuten Symphony’s Head of Intelligent Operations, will discuss on his panel titled “How Will AI Power The Next Wave Of 5G Innovation?” The panel (9/26 at 1:30 p.m. PT) is moderated by Shreya Majumder, Associate Partner, McKinsey & Company and features experts from Movandi, Microsoft, Tricentis and Qualcomm.
Bhatt’s presentation will be enriched by his deep experience with AI for operations, serving as the head of AI Operations for the Rakuten Mobile’s Service Experience Center. In addition, he brings a broader, market-oriented perspective from his position as Head of Symworld Solutions for Rakuten Symphony. In that job he has overseen the tight integration of AI for network automation.

New era for 5G
It’s a new era for 5G networks as operators expand their standalone networks and evolve their initial network deployments to reduce costs through AI-based automation and Open RAN. These two sessions by Rakuten Symphony experts provide a sure bet for all MWC Las Vegas attendees that want to impact the success of their 5G networks.

symphony.rakuten.com/blog/...offer-sure-bets-at-mwc-las-vegas

Telco AI Deep Dive: Rakuten on the importance of data fidelity

By Sean Kinney, Editor in Chief

September 12, 2023

www.rcrwireless.com/20230912/deep-dive/...elity?_fsi=LTugXjGt

Acorns
     $1.90  3/9/2022§United States Irvine Financial Services e.ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, Greycroft

Fever
     $1.96 1/26/2022§United States New York Media & Entertainment
          
    Cabify 
     $1.40 1/22/2018     Spain    MadridIndustrials§Seaya Ventures, Otter Rock Capital, Rakuten

www.cbinsights.com/research-unicorn-companies

“The surging popularity of KCON is indicative of the larger trend we are seeing here in the U.S., and around the globe, of rising interest in not only Korean entertainment but Asian entertainment overall,” says Karen Paek, VP of Marketing for Rakuten Viki. “We continue to see a growing interest in the Rakuten Viki platform from a diverse audience. In fact, more than 70% of viewers coming to our platform are of non-Asian descent. As one of the first streaming platforms for Asian entertainment in the U.S., Viki was proud to have a presence at this year’s KCON to celebrate Korean culture and showcase our incredible catalog of Asian movies and shows.”

rakuten.today/blog/...asian-entertainment-at-kcon-la-202.html

Rakuten Viki K-Drama Cafe at KCON LA 2023 - Recap

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_wyE29qcrY

AST SpaceMobile has more than 2,600 patent and patent-pending claims for its technology and built state-of-the-art facilities in Midland, Texas, which collectively span 185,000 square feet. AST SpaceMobile also has agreements and understandings with more than 40 mobile network operators globally, which have approximately 2.4 billion existing subscribers total, including Vodafone Group, Rakuten Mobile, AT&T, Bell Canada, Orange, Telefonica, TIM, MTN, Saudi Telecom Company, Zain KSA, Etisalat, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, Telkomsel, Smart Communications, Globe Telecom, Millicom, Smartfren, Telecom Argentina, Telstra, Africell, Liberty Latin America and others. Vodafone, Rakuten, American Tower, Samsung NEXT and Bell Canada are also investors in AST SpaceMobile.

spaceref.com/newspace-and-tech/...-from-everyday-smartphones/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGS7IJcv7jQ&t=25s

Dieser seltsame „Analyst“ vertritt die absurde These, dass fällige Darlehen immer durch Cash beglichen werden müssten und niemals selbst auch teilweise nicht durch neue Darlehen ersetzt werden dürften.

Wenn es denn so wäre, wäre die Wirtschaft schon seit Adam und Eva bis heute permanent zusammengebrochen.

seekingalpha.com/article/...1-rakuten-eyes-debt-maturity-risk

Was mich wundert ist allerdings, dass man inzwischen auch bei Seeking Alpha Autoren mit derart m.E. unseriösen Ansichten Raum für ihre Äusserungen bietet.

Nachvollziehbar ist es für mich nicht und über die Gründe dafür kann man spekulieren.

Denkbar ist m.E., dass es gut für's Geschäft von Seeking Alpha ist.

A+E Networks EMEA launches fast channels on Rakuten TV

SEPTEMBER 20, 2023 12.26 EUROPE/LONDON BY JULIAN CLOVER

A+E Networks EMEA is bringing its three free ad-supported FAST channels to the Rakuten TV platform.
The three curated platforms Inside Crime, Mystery TV, and World War TV continues A+E Networks EMEA’s strategy of placing its content onto new platforms.

www.broadbandtvnews.com/2023/09/20/...%2520new%2520platforms.

www.soumu.go.jp/menu_news/s-news/01kiban14_02000615.html

www.nzz.ch/international/...l=166_2023-09-21&reduced=true

JAPAN SHOWS THE WORLD WHAT AN OPEN RAN/VRAN ISLAND LOOKS LIKE .................................................................­..................... 9
Japan has propelled Fujitsu and NEC to the open RAN/vRAN leadership board.........................................................10
THANKS JAPAN AND DISH, OTHERS HAVE YET TO TAKE THE PLUNGE! .................................................................­..............................14
After turning into a fiasco in June 2022, The “Rip and Replace” initiative has stalled..............................................14
Front runners Telefónica and Vodafone scaled down, after all..............................................................­.............................15
Although everyone is committed to open vRAN, there is no shortage of excuses for scaling down and
postponing D-day............................................................­.................................................................­.........................................................15
SNAFUS PUT ASIDE, OPEN VRAN IS SET TO RULE THE WORLD AND RUIN THE TRADITIONAL RAN
ESTABLISHMENT, UNLESS THEY TRULY EMBRACE IT .................................................................­..........................17
NTT DOCOMO DID IT, NOW THE WORLD IS WATCHING.........................................................­..............................................................17
THE THORNY HUAWEI REMOVAL ISSUE THAT LED TO UNPRECEDENTED MULTINATIONAL COOPERATION IS THE POSITIVE
FORCE .................................................................­.................................................................­.................................................................­...........17
For most of the world, the mission to ban the Chinese vendors is accomplished… .....................................................17
…And international cooperation is at its best.............................................................­.................................................................­18
This also drove the creation of a flurry of regional and national initiatives......................................................­...........19
All this led to a rapid expansion of a crowded open RAN ecosystem….......................................................­......................21
…that also reshuffled the chipset landscape that has been all about Intel and its partners DELL, HPE and
Supermicro.......................................................­.................................................................­.................................................................­..........23
But Intel is not resting on its laurels..........................................................­.................................................................­.....................25
BUT THE FAST 5G COMMERCIAL NETWORKS ROLLOUT CYCLE IS THE NEGATIVE FORCE .................................................................­..25
However, the good news is that open RAN/vRAN is becoming mature enough to take part in the 2nd 5G
rollout cycle .................................................................­.................................................................­...............................................................27­
This year’s pause evokes George Stigler’s survivorship principle........................................................­................................27
We expect the open RAN/vRAN market to experience the Stigler principle........................................................­..........28
Consequently, consolidation and restructuring are on the agenda...........................................................­........................28
CONSEQUENTLY, THE OPEN VRAN MARKET IS SET FOR A SHORT-TERM PAUSE BEFORE TAKING OFF IN 2025,“ITS GLOBAL
SWITCH YEAR”............................................................­.................................................................­.................................................................­..30
2025 will be the “global switch year” .................................................................­.................................................................­............31
The open vRAN penetration of the global traditional RAN sales is expected to hit 23.4% in 2028, up from
4.7% in 2023 .................................................................­.................................................................­.............................................................31
So far, Asia Pacific is the world’s largest open vRAN market but the sleeping giant is awakening ....................32
North America is poised to hit the 20% penetration bar in 2025 and reach 50% by 2028....................................32
We believe nearly all commercial open RAN networks will be running RAN functions on software..................35

Open RAN/vRAN Report | September 2023
Page 3
vRAN and open RAN are 2 different configurations...................................................­...............................................................35­
DISH and Rakuten Mobile bring cloud RAN to prime time .................................................................­...................................36
As NTT docomo showed the world, an open RAN does not need to be virtual ..............................................................37
OPEN VRAN IS A STRONG CANDIDATE FOR INDOOR USE CASES IN GENERAL AND AS A DAS
REPLACEMENT IN PARTICULAR.......................................................­.................................................................­............39
CURRENT C-RAN-BASED DAS ARCHITECTURES OFFER PLENTY OF OPPORTUNITIES FOR OPEN VRAN UPGRADES....................39
In 2026, the indoor open vRAN/open DAS market will surpass indoor DAS..............................................................­....40
The neutral host capability has been protecting the DAS market so far but open vRAN can kill it all together
.................................................................­.................................................................­.................................................................­........................40
Private wireless networks remain an open vRAN niche for now but 90% of large enterprise installations are
traditional RAN..............................................................­.................................................................­...........................................................41
However, as DAS replacement shifts to smaller venues, open vRAN will eventually penetrate the SME space
at some point............................................................­.................................................................­.................................................................­.41
Indoor 5G coverage is the vRAN driving force............................................................­.................................................................­42
The shift from DAS to C-RAN to open vRAN architecture is shaking the traditional DAS vendor ecosystem.42
Interestingly enough, Airspan, Comba, and CommScope have become leading open RAN RU and antenna
suppliers........................................................­.................................................................­.................................................................­..............44
In this DAS bucket, JMA Wireless is unique .....................................................

www.lightcounting.com/report/...ber-2023-open-vran-market-213

O-RAN ALLIANCE Welcomes Four New OTICs In North America

Bonn/Germany, August 17, 2023

The O-RAN ALLIANCE, fulfilling its mission to transform Radio Access Networks to be open, intelligent, virtualized and fully interoperable, today announced that it has approved four new Open Testing and Integration Centres (OTIC) in North America. OTICs are vendor-independent, open, and qualified labs approved by the O-RAN ALLIANCE that issue awards in the O-RAN Certification and Badging Program, so that operators can deploy products at scale and with confidence.

assets-global.website-files.com/...%2520North%2520America.pdf