Akihabara News (Tokyo) — The Rakuten Group has made a big move to expand its investment in O-RAN technology for mobile operators with the acquisition of Tewksbury, Massachusetts-based Altiostar.
The US$1 billion deal sees Altiostar become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rakuten in order “to accelerate deployment of software-centric, virtualized services for the mobile industry across the globe.” It will henceforth become part of the Rakuten Communications Platform.
Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) stands in contrast to the RAN operated by a handful of international mobile industry giants (Huawei, Nokia, and Ericsson) in the sense that it theoretically doesn’t rely on the proprietary technology of a single firm but is instead based on a set of agreed standards, specifications, and interfaces to which multiple vendors may ultimately contribute and participate.
Hiroshi Mikitani commented, “We’re entering a new era where mobile network operators can choose how to build and deploy a network by working with the world’s most innovative software companies to create open and interoperable solutions. We’re delighted to welcome the Altiostar team to the Rakuten family as we share a common passion for empowering mobile networks through disruptive innovation, offering mobile operators around the world secure, cost-effective and highly agile technology.”
Altiostar Networks CEO Ashraf Dahod, who will remain in his post in the wake of the acquisition, added, “Open RAN architecture and virtualization are key to building software-centric networks that can scale and adapt to meet an explosion of devices and applications driving service velocity and profits. Becoming a Rakuten Group company will allow us to build on our foundation and accelerate our technology development to help operators to innovate, explore new business models, and bring affordable broadband to the masses through web-scale mobile networks.”
Quickly following on the acquisition of Altiostar, Rakuten was able to announce that it had also won a major international O-RAN contract.
Rakuten and 1&1 AG are entering into a long-term partnership to build the fourth mobile network in Germany. Together they will build Europe’s first fully virtualized mobile network based on O-RAN technology.
Securing the 1&1 partnership is regarded by some analysts as quite a coup for Rakuten, given how little experience it possesses in this field.
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