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Rakuten Mobile will hold a press conference on the 4th. It announced the “ZERO Statement” which includes 0 yen for administrative procedures such as MNP.
Mr. Hiroshi Mikitani, President and CEO of Rakuten Mobile, will be on stage at the presentation. Explain the history of Rakuten Mobile.
Rakuten Mobile Mr. Mikitani
The company entered the mobile phone business as an MNO in April 2020. For the current mobile phone plan that is expensive, complicated and difficult to understand Rakuten Mobile with a single “Rakuten UN-LIMIT” plan, unlimited use of calls and communications, and a fee of 2,980 yen. Starting in September, the price will be revised to “Rakuten UN-LIMIT V”, which includes 5G and remains unchanged. The company’s rates are “71% cheaper than other companies,” he said.
“ZERO statement”
Mr. Mikitani is proud to have “overturned the common wisdom of the mobile phone industry.” “I will challenge the ‘new common sense’ that only Rakuten Mobile can do,” he said again.
In the “ZERO Statement” developed by the company, in addition to the usage fee so far, the administration fee and the MNP transfer fee will be free. In addition, the SIM card change, reissue fee, MNP transfer fee, and contract cancellation fee will also be free.
Mr. Mikitani explained that the reason the ZERO statement can be executed is that the cost can be significantly reduced by using the fully virtualized network, which is also a company feature. As a result, the cost of operation is minimized and return to users is possible.
Construction of the base station is 5 years ahead of schedule
Mr. Tarek Amin, Vice President and CTO of Rakuten Mobile, explained the progress of the base station construction plan.
Rakuten Mobile Tarek
The company explained that it aims for a population coverage rate of 80% or more by March 2021. “We have to cover everyone indoors and outdoors, the people who are inside the building, it is important to accelerate the plan to build the base station, “Tarek said, saying the plan was five years ahead of schedule.
In addition, the coverage rate per base station has increased between 30% and 40%.
Mr. Tarek explained that the company’s network has achieved low cost, elasticity, and scalability by promoting containerization of general-purpose hardware and applications without using dedicated hardware.
He also emphasized that it is the world’s first large-scale commercial network to use OpenRAN (O-RAN). “O-RAN is essential for success. In Japan, we were able to implement the world’s first OpenRAN,” he said.
In question
KDDI, which provides roaming to Rakuten Mobile, announced that it will end roaming in some areas. On the Internet, some people said that the condition of radio waves deteriorated as soon as roaming ended, but Yoshihisa Yamada, President and CEO of Rakuten Mobile, said those cases were only a small part, saying, “I’m sorry for the inconvenience. Sorry to all users who have. We will respond by quickly building a base station and distributing MVNO terminals individually. “
There are still many roaming areas on the underground streets of Tokyo and Osaka and along the railway lines. For places like tunnels that are jointly developed by each operator, they are expected to switch to their own lines relatively quickly. As for the Tokyo subway, it is said that it often changes to its own line.
On the other hand, individual buildings will be maintained internally. Mr. Yamada said it will take a little longer because it depends on negotiations with the tenant, but Mr. Yamada said: “Maintenance is progressing at a rapid pace. In the next few years, the interiors will be changed to our own. line”.
Also, the 5G band, which uses a high-frequency band, requires a cost of base station maintenance. KDDI and Softbank are also working together to build a base station, but Tarek says they are not considering such a joint development at this time. The idea was to upgrade the existing 4G base station, including conversion to 5G, but Mr. Yamada said that “5G will increase the number of base stations. There is a possibility to cooperate with other companies.” Suggested there is.
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