Rakuten wesentlich besser als Rocket

Fostering a Multi Vendor ORAN RU Ecosystem, and Paving the Way for AI RAN

March 20, 2026

One of the feature sessions at the Rakuten Booth on Day 2 at mwc26 saw a panel discussion titled "Fostering a Multi-Vendor ORAN RU Ecosystem, and Paving the Way for AI-RAN". Moderated by Roy Chua, Founder and Principal of AvidThink, the session featured Sudhakar Pandey, Head of RAN at Rakuten Mobile, Patrik Eriksson, VP and Head of the Mobile Systems Business Unit at 1Finity, Glenn Laxdal, President and CEO of Airspan Networks, Eric Yoon, Head of System Integration Business, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics and Nitin Agarwal, Director, Product Management of Qualcomm. The discussion explored how O-RAN is not just a promise, but a proven, production-grade solution delivering exceptional performance in the most demanding environments for mobile operators.

Key takeaways included:

Rakuten's success in Tokyo: A testament to O-RAN's ability to deliver high-quality, scalable services with massive MIMO performance, validated against traditional incumbents.

A thriving multi-vendor ecosystem: We showcased how companies like Airspan, Fujitsu/1FINITY, Samsung, and Qualcomm are driving true interoperability, with Rakuten Symphony making this accessible globally.

The path to AI-RAN: O-RAN's software-defined architecture is the essential foundation for future innovations, including AI-driven network optimization and efficiency.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sqWcKK8Pwg

7 March 2025

How Open RAN nearly got too open, and how to build the networks of the future.

Raghunath Hariharan is CTO, Rakuten Symphony. In this revealing interview with TMN editor Keith Dyer he explains how the efforts to disaggregate mobile networks almost went too far, and describes the need for an intermediate approach that provides a level of pre-integration, while remaining open.
He also recognises that Open RAN has been a gradual process, and not an explosion, something he puts down in part to O-RAN parameters not being mandatory, allowing companies to fragment implementation.

But he is positive also. Rakuten Symphony has integrated with 10 different Radio Unit vendors with more to come, and with a minimum viable set of standards now established, he is confident that we will now see more progress in the industry.

Rakuten Symphony itself has had to change, and has successfully migrated its Open RAN business to a licensing model, which will enable it to open up enterprise and private networks opportunities via its licensee partners.

From human to machine-centric, deterministic networks

And then there is what comes next. And here he has a “very strong opinion” – which is that the next phase of mobile networks will move from being human-centric to being machine-centric, with deterministic latency and throughput. That can’t happen, of course, without the open, cloud-native and software-defined network. And here, the “biggest piece of the puzzle is in the RAN”.

the-mobile-network.com/2025/03/23287/

March 23, 2026

Radisys CEO Arun Bhikshesvaran sat down with Rakuten Mobile’s Chief AI and Data Officer Sachin Verma  for a “Coffee, Chai & Chat” podcast at MWC Barcelona. They discussed how AI-enhanced digital services, and the ways in which Rakuten Mobile is leveraging Radisys’ Engage Digital Platform (EDP) to enable new network monetization models.

www.rcrwireless.com/20260323/ai/...ys-rakuten-mobile-mwc-2026

Key changes of the March 2025 Policy Changes can be found here.

help.viber.com/hc/en-us/articles/...ber-s-2026-Policy-Changes

BlueBird 7 Puts AST SpaceMobile Back in Focus

AST SpaceMobile has a stock-specific catalyst layered on top of the sector-wide hype: BlueBird 7 was encapsulated at Cape Canaveral in February 2026 and is awaiting orbital launch. The company is targeting 45 to 60 satellites in orbit by year-end 2026, with launches planned every one to two months on average. BlueBird 7 getting off the ground would mark meaningful progress toward that goal.

The fundamentals backing this launch story are real. AST SpaceMobile posted Q4 2025 revenue of $54.31 million, beating the consensus estimate of $42.24 million by 28.56%. The company has over $1.2 billion in contracted partner commitments from telecom operators. AST SpaceMobile CEO Abel Avellan framed the year ahead clearly: "In 2026, we expect to scale our space-based direct-to-device network from initial commercial activation toward the start of broader commercial service."

finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/...b-150525801.html

rmobile-referral.com/en/

Rakuten Advertising and Similarweb Power LLM Visibility and Performance Intelligence for Brands

LONDON and SAN MATEO, Calif., March 25, 2026 /PRNewswire/ --Rakuten Advertising, the leading global affiliate marketing network, and Similarweb, the leader in digital data and market intelligence, today announced a strategic collaboration to deliver the affiliate industry's most powerful and unique data capabilities that help brands better understand and optimize their presence within large language models (LLMs) and across digital marketing channels. As AI reshapes how consumers discover and engage with brands, this partnership is designed to help advertisers move beyond traditional metrics and better understand where and how decisions are increasingly being influenced.

As part of the agreement, Rakuten Advertising will integrate Similarweb's proprietary, best-in-class data into its analytics and reporting environment, offering brand advertisers deeper visibility into how their content and performance surface in emerging AI-driven discovery channels. Built on real user behavioral data at scale for topics and responses, Similarweb's insights provide a more comprehensive view of the digital ecosystem, enabling Rakuten Advertising clients to make more informed decisions, reach new customers, and build future-ready performance marketing strategies.

The integration underscores Rakuten Advertising's continued investment in innovation to provide a competitive advantage to its clients in a rapidly evolving digital marketing environment. By incorporating Similarweb's proprietary data, the company is expanding its ability to help clients measure and improve visibility within generative AI platforms.

The new capabilities will be available initially to a select group of Rakuten Advertising clients, with additional reporting features to be introduced soon. Participating brands will be able to better understand how they are represented within LLMs, access differentiated insights, and tie them more directly to performance.

www.gurufocus.com/news/8741133/...nce-intelligence-for-brands

Rakuten Life Insurance bringt mit „Rakuten Card Super Whole Life Insurance Short-Term Payment Plan“ ein exklusives Anwendungsprodukt auf den Markt , das die branchenweit höchste Rückerstattungsquote bietet und durch eine effiziente Gestaltung des Rückkaufswerts finanzielle Sicherheit und Ruhe gewährleistet.

25.03.2026

Die Rakuten Life Insurance Co., Ltd. (nachfolgend „Rakuten Life“ genannt) wird ab Mittwoch, dem 1. April 2026, über ihre exklusiven persönlichen Vertriebsmitarbeiter einen kurzfristigen Zahlungsplan für ihre „Rakuten Life Super Whole Life Insurance (offizieller Name: Low Surrender Value Whole Life Insurance)“ anbieten.

Dieses Produkt wurde in Zusammenarbeit mit der Rakuten Card Co., Ltd. (nachfolgend „Rakuten Card“ genannt) entwickelt und ist ausschließlich für Anwendungen über die „Rakuten Card“ bestimmt. Es erzielt die branchenweit höchste Rückerstattungsquote.

Mit steigender Lebenserwartung und vielfältigeren Lebensplänen wachsen die Sorgen um die Altersvorsorge und das Interesse am Vermögensaufbau. Gleichzeitig steigt der Bedarf an individuell zugeschnittenen Versicherungen. Um diesen gesellschaftlichen Herausforderungen zu begegnen, bietet Rakuten Life Insurance neben der bereits erhältlichen lebenslangen Zahlungsoption für die „Rakuten Life Super Whole Life Insurance“ nun auch einen kurzfristigen Zahlungsplan an, der den Bedürfnissen der Kunden in jeder Lebensphase gerecht wird. Kunden können so ihre Zahlungsdauer selbst bestimmen und die Verwirklichung eines erfüllten Lebens in Zeiten, in denen die Lebenserwartung auf 100 Jahre steigt, unterstützen.

www.rakuten-card.co.jp/corporate/press_release/20260325/

Japan: Nokia cloud-native IMS and SDM core go live on Rakuten Cloud

Rakuten Mobile, Rakuten Symphony and Nokia announced that Nokia’s cloud-native IMS and Subscriber Data Management (SDM) core network functions are now running in commercial production on Rakuten Cloud.

Japan, 2 March 2026 – The deployment includes IMS for voice services, SDM, Cloud Signaling Director, Mediation and NetGuard Certificate Manager, supporting Rakuten Mobile’s fully virtualized 4G and 5G core architecture. Migrating from virtual network functions to cloud-native functions enables faster deployments, elastic scaling, automation and improved orchestration. The milestone confirms Rakuten Cloud’s capability to host carrier-grade telco workloads and strengthens its ecosystem of partner solutions aimed at supporting large-scale, cloud native 5G networks.

digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/node/16299/printable/pdf

SpaceX plant Mega-Börsengang: So viel Milliarden könnte er einbringen und diese Aktien profitieren
gerade

Do., 26. März 2026

Ursprünglich war erwartet worden, dass das IPO rund 50 Milliarden Dollar (etwa 46 Milliarden Euro) einbringen könnte. Laut dem jüngsten Bericht könnte das Volumen jedoch auf bis zu 75 Milliarden Dollar (etwa 69 Milliarden Euro) steigen, bei einer möglichen Bewertung von bis zu 1,75 Billionen Dollar (rund 1,61 Billionen Euro).

Die enormen Summen, die am Mittwoch im Raum standen, haben auch die Begeisterung von Investoren für bereits börsennotierte Raumfahrtunternehmen angeheizt.

de.finance.yahoo.com/nachrichten/...g-so-131420077.html?err=1

2026 Spring Sales Summary! U-NEXT plan strengthens interest rate increase, up to "Super Rakuten Festival"

mobamag.com/mobile/rakuten-mobile-spring-2026/

www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/RKUNY/...ry#google_vignette

In the OSS domain, Rakuten Symphony Japan provides integrated solutions designed for the efficient deployment and management of networks and infrastructure, including radio access networks (RAN), optical fiber networks and power generation equipment. With support for multi-vendor connections and AI-driven network operations, these tools enable telecommunications, private line and data center operators to automate the entire service lifecycle, leading to significant reductions in operational management costs.

Rakuten Symphony serves 74 customers and 17 partners globally*¹, offering cloud, OSS, Open RAN software and internet services to the telecommunications industry and beyond. The company reported full year revenue of 85.69 billion yen in 2025, and since the full-scale launch in the third quarter of 2021, revenue has reached a cumulative total of 283.86 billion yen. Rakuten Symphony achieved its first full-year non-GAAP operating profit in 2025 and aims to further improve profitability in 2026.

In its home market, Rakuten Symphony’s technology has played a critical role in the architecture and buildout of Rakuten Mobile’s fully virtualized, cloud-native mobile network, contributing to the achievement of over 10 million subscriptions*²through the provision of innovative and cost-efficient network solutions. Rakuten Symphony Japan will now extend this technical framework to support a wide range of enterprise customers, including Japanese infrastructure companies, tech companies and mobile carriers operating data centers.

“The full-scale launch of Rakuten Symphony Japan underscores the critical importance of the Japanese market in our global expansion strategy,” said Sharad Sriwastawa, President of Rakuten Symphony. “By bringing our cloud-native platforms and advanced network technologies to a broader range of Japanese industries, we are empowering local enterprises to achieve the same levels of agility and efficiency that we have proven at scale in the global market.”

Rakuten Symphony Japan has named Koichi Masaki as its Executive Officer and Japan Country Manager. A seasoned leader with extensive experience in the telecommunications industry, Masaki's deep understanding of the Japanese market positions him as a strategic choice to drive the new organization forward.

Koichi Masaki, Executive Officer and Country Manager of Rakuten Symphony Japan, said: “Our mission is to catalyze innovation for Japanese enterprises through our globally proven cloud and OSS solutions. We are committed to forging deep partnerships with our customers, meticulously understanding their challenges to co-create tailor-made solutions that will drive sustained growth and advance industries across Japan.”

By delivering these market-proven cloud and OSS solutions, Rakuten Symphony Japan aims to redefine the industrial landscape, serving as an engine for high-speed digital transformation for enterprise customers.

symphony.rakuten.com/newsroom/...nnovation-in-japanese-market