Rakuten wesentlich besser als Rocket
Despite these travails, the total market for network automation was $3.62 billion in 2021 and is expected to grow at 24.9 percent CAGR to reach $21.45 billion by 2029, according to Maximize Market Research – see graphic below for highlights.
https://futurenetworld.net/...work-automation-is-set-to-soar/2023/04/
By Anshul Bhatt
Chief Product Officer, BU Intelligent Operations Rakuten Symphony
March 18, 2024
Rakuten Mobile was the first greenfield mobile network to fully embrace Open RAN and a software-based architecture. It aggressively invested in automation, eventually running the entire Japan-wide network with only 250 network engineers.
Process, tools and people challenges emerged along the way. We know our customers will face the same hurdles as they embark on digital transformation journeys. We have identified nine challenges and realities that are likely to appear. Here’s our view on what to expect and how to get ready.
Lack of unified data platform
AI needs high quality data so it is important to have a unified data strategy whereby all data is discoverable, understandable, organized and sharable. Data governance requirements play a role, necessitating a unified data platform with controlled, secure access. This is especially true with sensitive data that introduces regulatory consequences tied to privacy laws and initiatives.
Missing UX to enable AI
When an AI model is written and the results are computed, a user interface that allows business users to make sense of the results and incorporate them into network or business activities is a must.
Ideally, these models would be embedded into the tools users access daily. Think about a network operations center (NOC) engineer that could use AI to provide insight on a trouble ticket. If that AI insight is not available on the screen of the trouble ticket application, then it's of little use to the engineer. The answer is not always to increase the number of tools that a user needs to collect and use AI, but rather to embed those insights into the existing tools.
Build an AI use case backlog
Having a backlog of use cases separates the MNOs that talk about implementing AI from those that are serious about it. A backlog means management has analyzed the network and the business operations to uncover problems that can be solved using AI.
It is the start of the AI transformation journey. With a backlog, an MNO can determine the priority of the projects based on network or business system impact. This analysis can also guide decisions around personnel and AI tools.
One way to create the backlog is to insert a new step into the incident review process. As the team reviews an incident and answers questions about why it happened and how it can be prevented, the question of “How can AI solve this?” can be broached. This helps develop an organizational understanding of how AI can be used.
Importance of trust and security
It is important to establish trust and security around AI use cases to guide the use of AI and ensure it remains a positive and trusted tool for solving problems. Trust and security are related to data governance but stand apart in our list due to importance to customers. Proper security will vary by tool but is important to build into all AI systems and processes.
Beyond security, it’s important that data scientists access, implement or use data and insights in a way that aligns with trust, security and even responsibility principles.
One real world example is a use case we are implementing to better manage battery backups during natural disasters. Earthquakes, typhoons or other disasters can cause power outages that take down mobile networks. We’re using AI to understand how we can reconfigure the mobile base stations in an affected area in order to save battery power.
We could use AI to maximize battery power by cutting the transmit power thus reducing transmission radius dramatically. But the AI system needs to balance this battery power optimization with the need for people to connect during an emergency. By focusing too much on extending battery life, an operator could lose the trust of users who find they can’t access the network just when they need it most.
Need for an AI platform
Creating an AI model is a multistep process that includes discovery, training, testing, evaluating and deploying. Today these steps take place in siloed tools or on a data scientist’s laptop. This provides no traceability or tracking and it can slow down the model development process significantly as data scientists have to search for the data they need.
In our experience, it can take up to nine months for a data scientist without a platform to go from a proof of concept to production. But an AI platform can cut that time to weeks because all data is in one place and the platform provides a single workbench for an entire project.
Scarcity of GPUs / compute power
What’s harder than finding a qualified data scientist? Finding the GPUs and compute power they need to do the job. There is a scarcity of GPUs and it’s an industry wide problem.
One advantage of working with Rakuten Symphony to build AI models is that the company has already trained some of the most useful models based on data from Rakuten Mobile. These models don’t need as much compute power because they have been trained on Rakuten’s compute infrastructure which is also available to customers for training new models.
We have access to the infrastructure that powers Rakuten Group which includes banking, e-commerce and other digital businesses. The company runs its own hyperscaler compute infrastructure. Rakuten Symphony can access this infrastructure to help solve unique MNO problems.
Integration and interoperability
AI is good at identifying problems and giving insights, but graduating to a Level 5 autonomous network, requires an MNO’s AI solutions be integrated into the tools users are already using in order to convert AI insights into actions.
The way to get this integration is through standardized APIs that allow the AI model to feed alerts and fixes to southbound operations support systems that can take action to solve the problem. This also means the AI tool must have standards compliance from industry leading standards bodies such as O-RAN Alliance, 3GPP and TM Forum. It’s important to select an AI platform that complies with telco standards, otherwise the insights will not be autonomously actionable.
Lack of telco-trained data scientists
Data scientists for telecom are a rare breed. To become one, a data scientist needs to be trained in AI model development and they also need domain expertise to understand the specific problems facing telcos and the data models available to fix those problems. This shortage is a challenge in every geography around the world with the possible exception of Silicon Valley.
Rakuten Symphony can help here as well by providing insights into customer network challenges from our data science team that has been embedded for years in the MNO industry, becoming experts in solving specific MNO AI challenges.
Poor quality of ML models
The skill of the data scientist and the quality of the AI model are equal only to the quality of data as inputs that lead to a successful AI outcome. But data scientists, by and large, don’t have telecom specific data to be able to fine tune models. In building our AI models, we relied heavily on our access to data from Rakuten Mobile which provided us with large quantities of real-world mobile network data. This allows us to build high-quality models that can be deployed quickly.
Revolutionizing your network with AI involves changing many of the processes, personnel and tools that have made the network run for many years. The scope of the change is bound to cause some speed bumps along the way, but armed with the right strategy, our industry can take them head-on in swift pursuit of AI-powered transformation.
https://symphony.rakuten.com/blog/...n-the-path-to-level-5-automation
https://www.surinenglish.com/malaga/...es-more-20240311161032-nt.html
Rakuten Teams Up with Kate Hudson and Designer Brand PatBO for Ad that Celebrates Savvy Shoppers
Who "Get It"
26 Feb, 2024, 09:00 ET
The spot kicks off the shopping platform's newest creative campaign telegraphing the benefits of shopping and saving on Rakuten
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 26, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Rakuten, the leading shopping platform that offers Cash Back and rewards, is collaborating with actress Kate Hudson and fashion designer Patricia Bonaldi of PatBO for the launch of its new advertising campaign, "Shoppers Get It." The new ad creative celebrates the thrill of discovering new shopping secrets and Rakuten's rise as the savvy shopper's most rewarding way to shop and save.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/...who-get-it-302070344.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0R1SKsB3eVg
By Sree Nandan Atur
Technical Director – Symcloud Rakuten Symphony
The telecom industry is at a critical juncture. We are transitioning towards a paradigm that's both technologically advanced and transformative. This shift demands a new focal point: observability. In the context of complex systems, observability isn't merely about monitoring systems; it's about understanding and controlling them. Rakuten Symphony's Telco Cloud solution stands out in this regard as a market-leading cloud-native Kubernetes/Orchestration solution, offering heightened control and insight into complex and dynamic telco ecosystems.
The past decade has been a period of unprecedented change in the telecom sector. Significant technological shifts and strategic realignments have contributed to these changes. When it comes to the quest to deliver new and innovative services to customers, the need for more flexible, scalable, on-demand deployment and cost-effective networks becomes non-negotiable.
Over a period of time, we saw the telecom sector evolve from a rigid, hardware-centric industry to a more flexible, software-driven one. The adoption of technologies like Software-Defined Networking (SDN), Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), Open RAN and cloud-native principles, are enabling the creation of networks that are more adaptable, scalable and capable of handling the demands of modern applications and services. As we look to the future, these trends are expected to continue, with further advancements in 5G, edge computing and network security driving the next wave of transformative change.
Here's a closer look at some of these trends:
Software-hardware disaggregation: Traditionally, telecom networks were built on proprietary, monolithic hardware, where the hardware and software components were tightly integrated. Disaggregation has involved breaking down these traditional network components into smaller, interchangeable parts. This shift allows telecom operators to mix and match hardware and software from different vendors, leading to increased competition, lower costs and greater flexibility in network deployment and management. However, this also introduces complexities in orchestration and integration, demanding more sophisticated observability tools which can provide the real-time or near-real-time data from a complex and disparate system. Such a system involves legacy, cloud-based, edge, core, network and applications layers providing insights for meeting user demands in a cost optimized manner.
Softwarization and virtualization: The industry has seen a significant shift towards the softwarization of network functions, moving away from hardware-centric models. This transition includes the adoption of SDN and NFV. SDN separates the network's control plane from the data plane, enabling centralized and flexible software-driven network management and automation. NFV replaces traditional network appliances with virtualized instances running on commodity servers, leading to improved scalability, cost of ownership and resource utilization.
Open RAN (Radio Access Network): Open RAN disaggregates the RAN components of cellular networks, allowing components from different vendors to interoperate seamlessly. This open architecture fosters innovation, reduces costs and even supports features like massive MIMO, essential for 5G networks.
Cloud-native: Cloud-native networks leverage the cloud's elasticity, resilience,and agility, using technologies like containers, microservices and hyperautomation through continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines. This approach allows telecom operators to deploy and scale applications more dynamically, improve time to market for new services, and enhance the overall network reliability and efficiency.
5G, IoT and the Edge: Arguably the most publicized development in telecom, 5G, brings faster speeds, high and reliable bandwidth, lower latency and the capacity to connect a vast number of devices. Many use cases today, such as IoT, autonomous vehicles and smart cities are reliant on 5G for assured performance. Edge computing – another key trend that implies moving workloads from centralized data centers to the edge of the network – is also critical for applications that require real-time processing. However, the emergence of 5G and Edge means telecom systems must manage and secure an ever-growing number of connections, each with varying service requirements regarding bandwidth, latency and mobility, often calling for rapid deployment and automated lifecycle management.
The shift of telco workloads to the public/private cloud: In a way, this shift was inevitable. Cloud allows telecom operators to stay competitive, dynamically scale resources, reduce capital expenditures, and rapidly deploy innovative services among others. However, it also introduces challenges such as ensuring security, managing multi-cloud environments and integrating with legacy systems.
Earrly in cloud environments, present several challenges:
Dynamic and distributed nature: In the telecom sector, cloud ecosystems are inherently complex, leading to difficulties in monitoring and tracking the system's state and understanding the interdependencies between various components end to end.
Multitenancy and isolation: Ensuring security and compliance in multi-tenant architectures, integrating with diverse legacy systems and managing the performance-cost trade-offs further complicate the set-up.
Multi-vendor, multi-cloud ecosystems: Ensuring interoperability, maintaining consistent performance standards and securing disparate systems pose significant challenges.
Performance and cost trade-offs: Gaining 360-degree visibility without adverse impact on system performance and cost is a continual challenge, especially in large-scale deployments.
Security and compliance: Cloud infrastructure and data might be spread across different regions; hence observability tools must correlate disparate features and address security challenges in open environments without violating regulatory requirements.
Evolving technologies and standards: Best practices for observability and control are continually evolving. Keeping up with these changes, integrating new tools and ensuring IT staff are up to date can be challenging.
Volume, variety and velocity of data: The sheer quantity and variety (logs, metrics, traces) of data generated, alongside the need for collecting, processing, correlating and analyzing it in real time place tremendous strain on traditional monitoring tools. This requires major investments in AI/ML technologies and supporting infrastructure.
Addressing these challenges requires a robust strategy combining advanced technological solutions, skilled personnel and continuously improving processes. As cloud environments become more prevalent in the telecom sector, developing effective observability and control mechanisms will be crucial for ensuring the reliability, performance and security of these complex systems.
The three pillars of observability
Observability in telecom transcends traditional monitoring. It offers a panoramic view of the network's health, performance, and security status. It's about predicting issues before they become critical and responding in real-time to dynamic network conditions.
It is underpinned by three pillars:
Enhanced data comprehension: It is important to consider the variety of data sources at play generated by physical and virtual network components in complex, modern-day telecom networks. This includes infrastructure, clusters, apps, and the network itself, each presenting data in various formats and standards. This data, consisting of both real-time and historical insights, must be processed and stored efficiently, while also meeting data ownership and privacy requirements. Observability delves into this data and provides a level of understanding, correlating the data obtained from all sources that is crucial for identifying patterns, predicting capacity needs, and spotting potential issues before they escalate.
Insightful predictive analytics: Observability goes beyond traditional monitoring, offering predictive insights through AI/ML that preempt network failures and congestion. The proven framework for network management, FCAPS (Fault, Configuration, Accounting, Performance, and Security) is closely related to observability. FCAPS provides a structured approach to monitoring and managing the network by observing parameters such as fault, availability, configuration changes, resource consumption, and security. It constitutes a holistic approach to enhancing network health and efficiency.
Proactive and intelligent actions that lead to monetization: This involves the use of a proactive approach, which means that networks aren't just reacting to issues but are continuously learning and improving. Prevention is not the only goal here. Proactive actions can lead to enhanced service offerings, better customer experiences and responsive services. This shift from viewing the network as a cost center to a source of value opens competitive differentiation by capitalizing on revenue-generating opportunities.
Open source is essential, yet not a standalone solution
Open source and Kubernetes have become the go-to platforms for managing cloud-native applications and 5G infrastructures. Kubernetes, with its closed-loop architecture, guarantees continuous operation and optimal resource allocation, enhancing scalability, flexibility and efficiency in multi and hybrid cloud environments. Its robust container orchestration capabilities allow operators to manage and scale services on demand, optimizing utilization and availability. Open telemetry enables operators to detect issues early, understand system dependencies and make informed decisions to improve performance and reliability. In distributed 5G and Edge ecosystems, open-source tools such as Prometheus, Thanos and InfluxDB, along with processing frameworks like Hadoop, facilitate the efficient collection, storage and analysis of multi-source, multi-format data across OSS systems.
Kubernetes’ support for microservices-based architectures enables agility and rapid deployment, while features like self-healing, automated rollbacks and load balancing significantly improve system reliability and fault tolerance. However, it has its limitations.
The shift to multi-cloud, multi-vendor ecosystems introduces complexity within environments marked by virtualization and disaggregation. The cloud's ability to swiftly scale resources up or down demands that observability control loops operate on the order of milliseconds. Pinpointing the precise dataset among massive data pools and routing it to the appropriate node for accurate observation is a formidable challenge, as are legacy integration, managing large-scale, distributed clusters and synchronization of diverse configurations and workloads. Issues such as interoperability and the security vulnerabilities associated with open APIs further complicate this landscape.
Historically, the telecom sector's reliance on closed, proprietary data formats has impeded integration across multi-vendor ecosystems, complicating the comprehensive analysis, collection and storage of vital information. Often, achieving holistic observability requires reliance on third-party, vendor-agnostic tools, with the hope that the underlying systems are sufficiently open and compatible to allow for effective monitoring and management.
Mobility management as a use case
Consider a typical mobility management scenario in a 5G network. Radio Units (RU) absorb radio waves, transforming them into electrical signals transmitted via front-haul networks to Distributed Units (DU) at far-edge clusters. DUs, often requiring fast data processing, use accelerators and pass information through mid-haul networks to Central Units (CU), then to the core network and ultimately the internet. This process involves a mix of on-premises and cloud components, multiple vendors and various domains like RAN, core and application. Creating visibility and managing this process, especially in real-time and at scale, is an immense challenge.
Rakuten's Telco Cloud addresses the intricacies of modern telecom systems with nuanced control by providing a unified view across different layers and components, from the core to the edge, from physical infrastructures to virtualized functions.
Unified management across disaggregated layers: Rakuten Symphony's Telco Cloud provides a cohesive platform to manage and orchestrate the diverse and disaggregated components of 5G networks, from RU/DU/CU to core networks. It simplifies the complex web of hardware, software and cloud elements, ensuring they operate cohesively.
Enhanced observability and control:
With its advanced observability features, Rakuten Symphony Telco Cloud offers real-time insights into every layer of the network. It can monitor the health, performance and security of each component, regardless of whether it's on-premises or in the cloud, proprietary or open-source. This holistic view is crucial for preemptive maintenance and swift issue resolution.
Streamlining operations with AI and automation:
Leveraging AI and automated workflows, Rakuten Symphony Telco Cloud can predict potential issues, optimize resource allocation and ensure seamless handovers and load balancing. This not only reduces the operational burden but also enhances the network's efficiency and reliability.
Vendor agnostic integration:
Recognizing the multi-vendor nature of modern telecom networks, Rakuten Symphony Telco Cloud is designed to be vendor-agnostic, offering seamless integration and management across different components and suppliers. This ensures that operators aren't locked into specific vendors and can choose the best solutions for their needs.
Facilitating cloud and legacy systems coexistence:
Rakuten Symphony Telco Cloud bridges the gap between traditional legacy systems and modern cloud infrastructures, offering tools and interfaces to manage both effectively. This eases the transition to cloud-native setups and ensures continued performance and security across the hybrid landscape.
As we look to the future of telecom, observability emerges not just as a tool but as a strategic asset. Rakuten Symphony's Telco Cloud exemplifies this shift, offering a solution that is not just about monitoring and reacting but about understanding and proactively shaping telecom ecosystems.
https://symphony.rakuten.com/blog/...s-the-x-factor-for-future-telcos
The intrinsic value of one Rakuten Group Inc stock under the base case scenario is 1 125.15 JPY. Compared to the current market price of 866.4 JPY, Rakuten Group Inc is undervalued by 23%.
https://www.alphaspread.com/security/tse/4755/summary
Telegram founder Pavel Durov said that the company expects to hit profitability next year with eyes on going public in the future.
The chat app, which crossed 900 million users, is making “hundreds of millions of dollars” through ads and subscriptions, Durov told the Financial Times in an interview. While global investors have offered the company money at a more than $30 billion valuation, he mentioned that Telegram aims to go public in the future.
https://techcrunch.com/2024/03/11/...kyTRJPi5rLPFH3b5YXr3S0En68vrEAh0
The event, which is currently known as Rakuten Fashion Week Tokyo, is also known for its bold street style, with guests seen sporting everything from gothic chic to quirky Lolita-style fashion.
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/19/style/...style-intl-hnk/index.html
Mit dem Anstieg auf 5,28 EUR hat die Rakuten-Aktie am 21.03.2024 ein neues 12-Monats-Hoch erreicht und damit den Kurs vom 20.03.2024 eingestellt.
Die Rakuten-Aktie befindet sich seit dem 29.12.2023 im langfristigen Aufwärtstrend und hat in diesem Zeitraum +42,23% an Wert gewonnen. Der Abstand zur 200-Tage-Linie beträgt aktuell +39,42%.
https://www.boerse.de/nachrichten/...25%2520an%2520Wert%2520gewonnen.
2024 2025 2026 2027 2028
Revenue 2,296,133 2,502,945 2,703,410 2,874,777 2,947,383 §
Dividend 2.21 2.51 1.81 2.25 2.25§
Dividend Yield (in %) 0.26 % 0.29 % 0.21 % 0.26 % 0.26 %
EPS -36.26 5.39 23.26 62.17 81.39§
P/E Ratio -23.89 160.60 37.26 13.94 10.65
EBIT -52,443 66,811 139,734 242,010 283,974 §
EBITDA 280,289 404,697 466,380 552,309 594,578§
Net Profit -76,559 9,853 52,841 146,302 174,371
Net Profit Adjusted -56,130 37,923 80,211 136,006 198,542
Pre-Tax Profit -83,574 31,941 101,538 221,458 279,897
Net Profit (Adjusted) -83,848 28,997 94,803 221,458 279,897
EPS (Non-GAAP) ex. SOE - - - - -
EPS (GAAP) -37.90 2.53 - 63.49 92.68
Gross Income - - - - -
Cash Flow from Investing -289,076 -285,354 -282,281 -292,545 -302,217
Cash Flow from Operations 631,566 842,244 889,580 1,248,215 1,389,322
Cash Flow from Financing -334,683 -84,261 -227,231 -444,407 -1,085,420
Cash Flow per Share - 177.66 - 119.60 -
Free Cash Flow -12,635 147,085 401,432 544,138 948,193
Free Cash Flow per Share 13.35 203.20 272.80 643.00 787.60
Book Value per Share 440.09 450.93 458.45 411.82 511.90
Net Debt -1,477,938 1,514,826 -299,057 -1,165,800 -6,731,200
Research & Development Exp. - - - - -
Capital Expenditure 247,291 241,202 252,527 255,850 246,700
Selling, General & Admin. Exp. - - - - -
Shareholder’s Equity 1,022,417 1,076,287 1,066,849 988,865 1,267,318
Total Assets 22,857,766 24,171,685 25,958,602 28,935,410 28,843,111
https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/rkunf-stock
Jason Rainbow March 22, 2024
WASHINGTON — AT&T is prepared to provide more funds to help get AST SpaceMobile’s direct-to-smartphone constellation plans off the ground.
AST SpaceMobile raised $155 million from AT&T and other investors in January, but the satellite operator needs more capital to provide 5G connectivity globally from low Earth orbit to phones and other devices outside cell tower coverage.
While AT&T is a conservative company that does not generally provide venture funding, Chris Sambar, head of network for the U.S. telecoms giant, said March 20 its investment in AST SpaceMobile is unlikely to be its last.
Despite only investing recently, Sambar said during a Satellite Conference panel here with AST SpaceMobile CEO Abel Avellan that the telco has been working with the satellite operator for six years.
AT&T is excited about the potential of a service aiming to deliver “texting, voice, and true broadband capabilities” globally to unmodified phones already in circulation, he said.
Other AST SpaceMobile terrestrial partners include Vodafone, one of Europe’s largest telcos with a significant presence across Africa, and Japanese technology conglomerate Rakuten — both are also investors.
https://spacenews.com/...zing-direct-to-smartphone-satellite-service/
[By 31 May, 2024] Rakuten Mobile Employee Referral Campaign! [Up to 14,000 points / Re-Contract, Multi-Contract OK]
https://www.yamamototetsu.com/rakuten-mobile-en
Speaking of the operation results in 2023, the total revenue amounted to JPY 2.3 trillion, up 7.8% from one year ago. Meanwhile, the group is finally out of the red, with EBITDA improving from a loss of around JPY 70 billion in 2022 to earnings of JPY 118.1 billion in 2023. Although the EBITDA loss of JPY 180 billion for the mobile telecom sector suggests ongoing headwinds, we still favor the overall performance of the group in 2023, which beat the market expectations with a significant improvement.
Table 1: Operating Performance of Rakuten in FY23
(Billion JPY) Revenue YoY Growth EBITDA YoY Growth
E-commerce 1,212 9.8% 116.2 16.8%§
Financial Services 725 11.2% 181.0 26.1%
Mobile Telecom 365 3.90% (179.1) 1,599
Total 2,302 7.80% 118.1 /
§
Sources: Company’s reports, iFAST compilations
Data as of 31 December 2023
https://www.bondsupermart.com/bsm/article-detail/...press-RCMS_289040
As we all know, Rakuten's mobile telecom business has been criticized for suffering huge losses since its inception, which weighs on the overall performance of the Group. However, after 5 years of start-up, the number of base stations and subscribers reached a stable level, and the quarterly operational cost was reduced from JPY 200 billion and around JPY 100 billion, and the group abandoned its low-priced promotional strategy, leading to a normalized telecom fee charges and remarkable improvement in 2023.
We see that the quarterly EBITDA loss significantly narrowed, from JPY 90 billion in 1Q2022 to JPY 30 billion in 4Q2023. If the group could be able to maintain the momentum, we consider that the quarterly EBITDA loss will be likely less than JPY 10 billion this year, and the likelihood of turning to a profitable position in 2025 is very high. Additionally, average revenue per user (ARPU), a key indicator of measuring a telecom provider's profitability, also improved considerably from less than JPY 1,000 to around JPY 2,000 today, albeit there is still a gap with major Japanese telecom players, such as Softbank Corporation and DOCOMO, which have ARPU of around JPY 4,000. All in all, we think that the mobile telecom segment is showing early signs of success and entering into a phase of stable development, and is expected to notably improve the earning quality in the next few years.
https://www.bondsupermart.com/bsm/article-detail/...press-RCMS_289040
March 26, 2024
MWC attendees were treated to a showcase of telecom’s future in Barcelona last month. Rakuten hosted 1&1 Mobilfunk CEO Michael Martin for a fireside chat with Rakuten Symphony Chief Business Officer Rabih Dabboussi, where the leaders discussed Rakuten’s role in designing, deploying and operating Europe’s most modern mobile network, and how its open architecture has laid the foundations for edge-powered experiences and superior performance.
The commercial service launch of 1&1’s mobile network in Germany represented an industry milestone. When Europe’s first commercial-scale open radio access network became fully functional, 1&1’s status as a pioneer in German mobile communications was cemented, and the world’s eyes were opened to what was possible in telecom.
In a panel discussion at the Rakuten booth during MWC moderated by Roy Chua from AvidThink, 1&1 Mobilfunk CEO Michael Martin joined Rakuten Symphony Chief Business Officer Rabih Dabboussi at the Rakuten booth for a wide-reaching conversation on the challenges and opportunities that await 1&1.
"Open RAN is not a problem - it’s the solution."
Michael Martin expressed his satisfaction with Rakuten’s role in deploying 1&1’s mobile network and the performance levels that have been achieved since the network became fully functional on December 8, 2023. 1&1 is now in the process of transitioning its 12 million MVNO customers onto its mobile network, with 200,000 customers being migrated every week.
“By combining the expertise of 1&1 with Rakuten's pioneering innovation, our dedication lies in providing incomparable value and effortlessly seamless experiences to our customers."
- Michael Martin, CEO 1&1 Mobilfunk
“I'm very happy now,” he said. “Our mobile network has been very stable so far and is performing well. Building a network at this speed would not have been possible with legacy technology. One misconception I’d like to clear up: Open RAN is not a problem - it’s the solution. Our diverse partners and ecosystem have brought us new possibilities. We are not permanently bound to any partner or vendor. If there is a new partner that can offer better technology, we have the option of exploring it and adopting it in the future. I can take the best technology that’s out there.
“We don’t just have one legacy partner. We now have more than 80 partners that need to be orchestrated and aligned - Rakuten is doing that in the main part of our network. I am happy about the partnership with Rakuten, as they are doing the integration. By combining the expertise of 1&1 with Rakuten's pioneering innovation, our dedication lies in providing incomparable value and effortlessly seamless experiences to our customers. It's always a common effort and approach and we are basically working as one company in a vivid ecosystem. It's a partnership.”
Michael Martin emphasized how Open RAN is allowing 1&1 to customize and enhance its network through software, streamlining network operations in the process. “The speed of fixing issues is already impressive, especially when compared to my past where everything was bound to hardware and replacements took months,” he said. “We’ve never had any issues like that because it's all standard hardware here. That's been a major positive learning. I can also say that I haven’t had any negative learning from the experience so far.”
“1&1’s network is a building block of smaller pieces of tech that helps us address issues as well as customer demands and business strategies.”
- Rabih Dabboussi, Chief Business Officer, Rakuten Symphony
Rabih Dabboussi, Rakuten Symphony’s Chief Business Officer, then took to the floor and underlined how Rakuten’s MWC Barcelona 2024 theme ‘Telecom Reinvented’ went beyond a mere maxim, holding a deeper meaning for a company that has innovation in its DNA.
“They are not just words on a wall,” he said. “We believe the telco industry has needed the level of transformation and courage shown by 1&1 for a very long time. Humanity has gone through improvements in every aspect of life from the moment we existed. We've seen it in utilities and energy, we've seen it in transportation, we've seen it in tech - that transformation from a distributed data center to a centralized approach offered as a service.
“1&1’s network is a building block of smaller pieces of tech that helps us to address challenges and issues as well as customer demands and business strategies. You need differentiation. You've got to challenge yourself to do better on performance, service assurance and on customer experience. That flexibility is what gives a mobile operator an advantage. It gives them faster time to market, a lower barrier of entry and the ability to leverage standard, open technology - COTS hardware, open virtualized systems, standard Linux operating systems, Kubernetes, containerization and network functions. If we have a challenge in any component, we try to fix it. If we can’t fix it, we replace it.”
Different by design
The conversation moved on to 1&1’s “unique” network architecture, which features base stations that are all connected with fiber, while it is building more than 500 regional ‘far-edge' data centers that host BBU functionalities on COTS hardware. “Our antennas are never more than 10 kilometers away from a far-edge data center,” Martin said. “That ensures latency of 3 milliseconds for service that is deployed in the distributed unit, offering the potential to deploy additional services in far-edge data centers as the need arises. Our architecture allows us to distribute a broad range of applications to the edge of the network, a model that wouldn’t have been possible in a legacy environment.”
Dabboussi stressed how this network architecture has exposed the limitations of legacy networks. “We are tired of environments that are extremely expensive and limited to a handful of suppliers around the world,” he said. “These environments are etched in stone, reliant on big, monolithic hardware and requiring a forklift throw-out and upgrade in every generation that you deploy. That has to change. 1&1’s architecture is built on open technologies, from hardware infrastructure, transport, the applications that serve customers, for messaging, security. All of them become software elements that are so small that you can always expand them. This gives 1&1 elasticity. We have the ability to go and fix problems through an open system. We have a community of more than 80 partners in the network, and they are all as hungry as we are. We come from the same culture, the same mentality.”
The cutting edge
Moderator Roy Chua rounded off the discussion by probing the panelists on the potential use cases for 1&1’s network - and Martin highlighted how the edge architecture would remove the performance barriers previously associated with geography in the future. “Content can be hosted at a base station at a regional data center close to wherever a user is at a particular point in time,” he said. “If I go to Munich, the network recognizes that I’m in Munich and my content is already at the regional data center for whatever use case you might think of. Using the edge directly creates a much better customer experience.”
“In terms of digital services and experiences, the sky's the limit with this architecture,” Dabboussi said. “It allows services to be pushed to the edge at a performance level that is unheard of. Think of gaming and trading with ultra-low latency. You could work magic. There are so many use cases that will evolve. With this advanced open architecture, imagine the experience that we will be going through in 10 years from now 20 years from now. But the ecosystem has to grow first.”
https://symphony.rakuten.com/blog/...ilfunk-ceo-at-mwc-barcelona-2024
Rakuten's operating performance improved across the board in FY23, with the e-commerce and financial services segments growing at a high-quality and rapid pace. Loss in the mobile telecom sector notably narrowed and the group is expected to reach the breakeven points from 2025 onwards. We are positive about the group's prospects.
In terms of credit quality, given the early stage development of mobile telecom, the high capital expenditure results in somewhat tight liquidity. Owing to a decent capability of refinancing, Rakuten raised a large amount of funds in FY23 through equity financing and the IPO of a subsidiary. Considering that the group owns a lot of valuable assets. Including Rakuten securities and Rakuten Card, either through IPOs or equity sales are potential sources of liquidity.
https://www.bondsupermart.com/bsm/article-detail/...press-RCMS_289040
Earn Cash Back today at over 3,500 stores online. Find everything you need, like clothing, accessories, home goods and more.
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28th February 2024
International streaming operator Rakuten TV has struck multiple deals with telcos and TV providers across Europe.
https://www.digitaltveurope.com/2024/02/28/...latforms-across-europe/
19 Mar 2024
As the demand for Japanese designers grows, it is no wonder that a similar fate has befallen the country’s local fashion week, where the roster continues to expand as the born-and-raised talent make the shift between European presentations and home shows in greater numbers. Over the course of March 11 to 16, Rakuten Fashion Week Tokyo (FWT) returned to once again convey its message of global connection, bringing with it 43 brands and one international label under headline sponsor’s annual ‘by R’ project, this year’s being Marimekko.
https://fashionunited.uk/news/business/...to-strengthen/2024031974689
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