Rakuten Group CEO Mickey (Hiroshi) Mikitani says Rakuten Mobile has carved out a unique ecosystem while advancing O-RAN and AI to drive down telecom costs and boost network flexibility. The company aims to expand its Operational Support System (OSS) customer base to 150 by the end of 2025, reinforcing its global footprint.
Scaling through innovation
Speaking ahead of MWC 2025 in Spain, Mikitani compared Rakuten's telecom push to its early moves into travel, credit cards, and banking—ventures that once faced skepticism but proved the company's ecosystem strategy viable. Since its 2019 entry into telecom, Rakuten Mobile has developed a model distinct from US cloud giants.
While AI and deep-learning models dominate industry discussions, Mikitani emphasized the critical role of data. Rakuten's holdings across e-commerce, finance, and now mobile give it a competitive edge that rivals cannot easily replicate.
From reluctance to revolution
Despite his initial reluctance—calling telecom "the area I least wanted to enter" due to its high capital demands—Mikitani sees it as essential to modern society. Rakuten Mobile remains the only firm to transition from an Over-The-Top (OTT) model to full-fledged mobile operations while also developing in-house telecom software.
Ambitious targets for 2025
Mikitani outlined three goals for Rakuten's telecom unit: achieving profitability, deepening ecosystem integration across services, and becoming a top telecom software provider. He acknowledged that O-RAN's rollout has been slow but underscored its scalability and cost benefits. Rakuten aims to cut power consumption by 20% through AI-driven O-RAN by 2025, leveraging software innovations that traditional hardware struggles to match.
On the enterprise front, Mikitani signaled Rakuten's growing cloud ambitions, with key announcements expected at MWC 2025. Meanwhile, the company's OSS software is gaining traction among major telecoms, supporting its bid for broader global influence.
Article edited by Jerry Chen
