Category: Telecom

Retail News Asia is committed to providing both local and global retailers with the latest Telecom & Telco news throughout the Asian market. This on a daily base.

Viettel shrugs off Covid, remains profitable
Telecom giant Viettel reported pre-tax profits of VND 19.9 trillion ($867.2 million) for the first half of 2021, a year-on-year increase of 3.1 percent.

The growth came despite the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak, which has forced 95 percent of its HCMC-based points of sale and 80 percent in Hanoi to suspend operations, and the number of mobile subscribers and telecom use declined.

The military-owned firm continued to work on digital transformation and sought to maximize online channels, and as a result achieved revenues of VND128.6 trillion in the first half, a 6.8 percent rise.

In all its foreign markets, Viettel increased market share, with the biggest increases seen in Haiti and Peru with 1.5 and 1.4 percentage points.

Its four leading foreign markets remain Cambodia, Laos, East Timor, and Burundi, while in Myanmar, it closes to the top with a 30.8 percent share.

Viettel has used technology for combating the Covid-19 pandemic by launching a vaccination management platform and installing 7,500 cameras in quarantine facilities.
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August 2, 2021
Nokia secures first 5G contract in China
Nokia secured a 5G RAN contract for China Mobile on Monday, making this the company’s first 5G contract in the country.

Nokia was awarded a 10% share in one of three contracts tendered by China Mobile, while Ericsson obtained 9.6% of another contract. The total tender for all three contracts reached about $6 billion, with Nokia being awarded 4% of the overall tender. Comparatively, Ericsson was awarded 2%, dropping from about 11% last year.

Together, Huawei and ZTE won the majority share in all three contracts to build 5G 700 MHz base stations for China Mobile and China Broadcasting Network. This is followed by a smaller local company Datang Corporation.

China Telecom and China Unicom will also be disclosing awards of their respective 5G contracts.

Currently, China is ahead of other countries in 5G deployments. According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, China had deployed 820,000 5G base stations by the end of March.
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July 29, 2021
Nokia secures first 5G contract in China
Nokia secured a 5G RAN contract for China Mobile on Monday, making this the company’s first 5G contract in the country.

Nokia was awarded a 10% share in one of three contracts tendered by China Mobile, while Ericsson obtained 9.6% of another contract. The total tender for all three contracts reached about $6 billion, with Nokia being awarded 4% of the overall tender. Comparatively, Ericsson was awarded 2%, dropping from about 11% last year.

Together, Huawei and ZTE won the majority share in all three contracts to build 5G 700 MHz base stations for China Mobile and China Broadcasting Network. This is followed by a smaller local company Datang Corporation.

China Telecom and China Unicom will also be disclosing awards of their respective 5G contracts.

Currently, China is ahead of other countries in 5G deployments. According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, China had deployed 820,000 5G base stations by the end of March.
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July 21, 2021
Comviva’s customer value management platform drives breakthrough growth for Indosat Ooredoo

Fueled by an intensely competitive operating environment in Indonesia’s mobile sector, Indosat Ooredoo partnered with Comviva in delivering a front-to-end real-time marketing management platform, as well as subscribers’ loyalty and rewards program to yield increased customer retention and revenue within months from implementation.

In a country where 98% of mobile phone users fall back on prepaid subscriptions, telecommunications operators in Indonesia’s competitive mobile market face the gargantuan challenge of retaining customers. In a heterogeneous market already characterized by low loyalty and high churn rates, matters are made worst when high costs deter telecommunications operators from reaching out to and acquiring new subscribers in under-served populations in far-flung areas.Indosat Ooredoo taps on Comviva’s expertise in innovation-driven growth marketing

It is costlier to replace churned customers than retaining them. Amid intense competition and dismal financials, Indosat Ooredoo recognized that the path to profitable growth is an improved customer value management (CVM) platform that manages customer lifecycle holistically to uncover customer insights and drive meaningful engagements.

Having collaborated on other deployments with much success, Indosat appointed Comviva, a global leader in mobile solutions for telecommunication operators, as a strategic partner to spearhead its Big Data CVM 2.0 program in April 2019.

Aimed at improving customer lifetime value to achieve incremental revenue, Comviva developed a three year digital roadmap with front-to-end digital strategies. The suite of solutions spans different stages from implementing, operating, optimizing and providing timely, in-depth post-implementation analysis to transforming customer experiences critical to the success of the program.

Overcoming key challenges with technology

Before partnering with Comviva, Indosat Ooredoo was missing out on opportunities to influence customers’ micro-moments at critical junctures in the customer journey. To maximize the value of individual customers and micro-moments of interactions, Comviva’s first step was adding real-time capabilities to the operator’s CVM platform.

A machine learning (ML), real-time interaction management platform, Comviva’s MobiLytix^TM Real Time Marketing capitalizes on actionable analytics to steer CVM excellence. It integrates data across multiple sources to build intelligence and act on real-time events to orchestrate engagements with customers.

Adding complexity to critical decision-making was the lack of federated data across Indosat Ooredoo’s various departments. To get to the root of this problem, Comviva developed a big data Hadoop-based centralized management system that effectively captures over 800 attributes about Indosat Ooredoo’s prepaid and post-paid subscribers to create a single view of its subscribers. This system brings focus to descriptive, predictive and prescriptive attributes of subscribers to serve as a unified customer data system accessible to the operator’s campaign management, business and applications teams.

Comviva also identified the absence of a pervasive artificial intelligence (AI) technology to measure campaign effectiveness as another shortfall. To this end, Comviva developed models founded on AI and ML to accurately predict customers’ behaviors.

Finally, Indosat introduced imPoin, a loyalty and rewards program to extend instant gratification to loyal customers and reward loyal customers preferentially. Powered by Comiva’s MobiLytix^TM Loyalty and Rewards Platform, this program allows Indosat Ooredoo to predict customer engagement activities and positively influence customer behavior through reward-based engagements. To yield the best outcomes, a framework was developed to measure, monitor, and optimize the program.

Comprising a 4-tier membership model – namely Red, Silver, Gold and Platinum, with Platinum being the highest tier – better benefits are rolled out for higher tiers. Members are motivated to earn benefits for all their engagements, which can be accumulated and redeemed via the myIM3 mobile app. Members can look forward to receiving a mix of lifestyle and experiential rewards such as fuel, shopping, dining as well as gaming vouchers.

July 20, 2021
India’s software market revenue projected to reach US$7.6 billion by year end
According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Semiannual Software Tracker 2H20 (July–December), the India software market is estimated to reach US$7.6 billion by the end of 2021. The India software market was pegged at US$7.0 billion in 2020, registering a growth of 13.4% year-over-year (YoY) compared with that in 2019. India accounted for 17.5% share of the overall Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan and China) (APEJC) region software market in 2020. Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP maintained their leadership positions in the India market during the same year.

Shweta Baidya, Senior Research Manager for Software and IT Services at IDC India says, “Although the pandemic had a minor impact on the overall growth of the India software market, it acted as a catalyst for strong growth across some of the software segments as enterprises reevaluated their IT strategies and took concrete steps to move toward digital business models. Digitally matured enterprises were able to smoothly navigate through the crisis and maintain business continuity and operational resilience. However, enterprises with traditional business models charted out new strategies to leverage cloud and digital to stay relevant and consistent. Investment in collaborative platforms, network transformation, and security re-architecture witnessed a spike during the last few quarters.”

IDC classifies the software market into three primary categories: applications, application development and deployment (AD&D), and systems infrastructure (SI) software. Applications contributed 60.4% to the overall market revenue, followed by AD&D and SI software with shares of 21.6% and 18.0%, respectively, in 2020.

As per IDC’s current estimates, engineering applications, collaborative applications, customer relationship management (CRM) applications, enterprise resource management (ERM) applications, and content workflow and management applications are the leading software segments in terms of revenue. The collaborative applications market witnessed the highest growth of 36.7% in 2020, followed by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms and system and service management software at 30.9% and 24.8%, respectively.

India Market Forecast

IDC estimates India’s overall software market to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.6% from 2020 to 2025. India enterprises will continue to invest in technologies that will help them spur innovation to improve operational efficiency and employee productivity, and in turn, maintain business momentum. IDC expects acceleration in demand for technologies, such as robotic process automation (RPA) software, conferencing and collaborative applications, AI platforms, digital commerce applications, and IT service management (ITSM) software, among others. Additionally, cloud is also becoming one of the critical elements of enterprises’ digital strategy. IDC expects the contribution of platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and software-as-a-service (SaaS) markets to the overall software market to increase from 36.8% in 2020 to 57.1% in 2025.

“In spite of the adverse impact of the pandemic, India continued to be one of the most resilient markets across the APEJC region. India software market registered a growth of 13.4%, which was the highest in the region. Enterprise sentiments improved during the second half of the year and investments were ramped up quickly on digital work models to enable smooth transition to a remote work environment. IT budgets were re-apportioned and allocated in accordance with the increased spending on emerging technologies. Software vendors have been aggressively acquiring customers by supporting them in the digital journey with flexible and scalable options,” adds Baidya.
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July 19, 2021
ZTE’s BIERin6 multicast approved by IEFT
ZTE Corporation announced that the BIERin6 (BIER in IPv6 Networks) multicast solution led by ZTE has been approved as Proposed Standard by the IETF(Internet Engineering Task Force).

The approval indicates that the telecommunications industry has reached an agreement on the technical principles of BIERin6, which is a key step towards commercial applications.

In the 5G era, large-bandwidth services, such as network live streaming, multi-party conference, and IPTV live broadcasting, are booming rapidly. A growing number of users bring enormous bandwidth pressure and challenges to the networks. However, most services adopt the unicast. Therefore, with the aim of networks optimization, the multicast has become an inevitable trend.

Bit Index Explicit Replication (BIER), as a new type of multicast technology, provides simple deployment, stable network status and high service scalability, and allows operators’ IP networks to provide users with flexible and controllable multicast services. Currently, BIERin6 is the best option for BIER deployment in the IPv6 networks, and also paves the way for the operators’ future IP network architecture.

ZTE has been taking the leading position in the field of BIER multicast. In October 2017, ZTE worked out the BIERin6 solution together with its partners. After extensive and in-depth discussions, by July 2019, more vendors had become supporters. In November 2020, ZTE released the white paper on BIER Multicast solution.

In December 2020, ZTE and the Nanjing Purple Mountain Laboratories jointly completed the first BIER multicast field trial in China, and first deployed and tested BIER multicast services in the existing network.

Moving forward, with the end-to-end service capability of BIER and BIERin6 multicast, ZTE will be committed to the network construction of its partners in the 5G era, and accelerating the commercialization of BIER and BIERin6 multicast.
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July 19, 2021
Nokia suing Oppo over patent infringement in several countries

Nokia, just like other big companies in the telecom industry, is very protective when it comes to its own patents. The Finnish company signed licensing agreements with many companies that use its patents and sued those that used them without permission.

The most recent on the list of companies that have just got sued by Nokia is Oppo. Nokia has decided to file lawsuits against Oppo for patent infringement in four countries: England, France, Germany, and India.

The reason behind Nokia’s action is that Oppo refused to renew the licensing agreement that allows the use of certain patents, which the Chinese company signed back in 2018. FOSS Patents reports that Nokia is using the same legal teams that won the previous company’s patent enforcement campaign against Lenovo and Daimler, so this might be a quick battle.

According to a statement offered by Nokia, there have been negotiations between the two companies, but Oppo decided to go on its own and rejected all offers.

We have been negotiating the renewal of our patent licensing agreement with Oppo but unfortunately, they have rejected our fair and reasonable offers. Litigation is always our last resort and we have offered to enter into independent and neutral arbitration to amicably resolve the matter. We still believe this would be the most constructive way forward.

This can probably end only two ways: either Nokia wins and Oppo pays, or Oppo agrees to sign another multi-year licensing agreement. Without dismissing Oppo’s chances to win the case, Nokia’s expertise in defending its patent portfolio recommends it as the sure winner, but surprises can happen.
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July 11, 2021

Telenor sells Myanmar operations to Lebanon’s M1 Group for $105 million

Telenor Group has entered into an agreement to sell 100 percent of its mobile operations in Myanmar to M1 Group for a total consideration of US$105 million USD, of which US$55 million is a deferred payment over five years. The transaction corresponds to an implied enterprise value of approximately US$600 million USD. M1 Group will acquire all the shares in Telenor Myanmar and continue the current operation.

On 4 May, Telenor Group announced an impairment of Telenor Myanmar. Telenor underlined at the time that the operations in Myanmar continued and that the future presence would depend on the developments in the country and the ability to contribute positively to the people of Myanmar. Further deterioration of the situation and recent developments in Myanmar form the basis for the decision to divest the company. In the present situation, it has not been possible for Telenor to conduct an ordinary sales process.

“The situation in Myanmar has over the past months become increasingly challenging for Telenor for people security, regulatory and compliance reasons. We have evaluated all options and believe a sale of the company is the best possible solution in this situation. The agreement to sell to M1 Group will ensure continued operations. Telenor entered Myanmar because we believed that access to affordable mobile services would support the country’s development and growth. I wish to thank all employees and partners who have taken significant efforts to build a company that has impacted the people of Myanmar and has provided state of the art telco services during Telenor’s years in the country,” says Sigve Brekke President and CEO of Telenor Group.

Since operations started in 2014, Telenor’s funding to Myanmar has been around 5.3 billion NOK. After turning cash flow positive in 2017, Telenor Myanmar has distributed approximately 3.2 billion NOK in dividends. With effect from the second quarter of 2021, Telenor Myanmar will be treated as an asset held for sale and discontinued operations. The gain/loss calculation arising from the transaction will be impacted, inter alia, by the accumulated translation differences related to the Myanmar operation and will be finally determined at closing. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals in Myanmar.

July 9, 2021

Huawei lands 4G licensing deal for Volkswagen cars

Huawei announced it has reached a license agreement with a supplier of Volkswagen Group. The agreement includes a license under Huawei’s 4G standard-essential patents (SEPs), which covers Volkswagen vehicles equipped with wireless connectivity. This agreement marks Huawei’s largest licensing deal in the automotive industry.

Song Liuping, Chief Legal Officer of Huawei, says: “As an innovative company, we own a leading patent portfolio for wireless technologies, which creates great value for the automotive industry. We are pleased that key players from the automotive industry recognize that value. We believe this license will benefit worldwide consumers with our advanced technology.”

Huawei expects more than 30 million vehicles to be licensed under its patents based on existing license agreements.

Over the past 20 years, Huawei has entered into more than 100 patent license agreements with major global companies across Europe, the United States, Japan, and South Korea. Huawei will continue to bring digital connectivity to more vehicles globally to establish a fully connected, intelligent world.

July 9, 2021

Infinet Wireless seals new distribution partnership with Terra Matrix in Malaysia

Infinet Wireless, the global leader in fixed wireless broadband connectivity, announces a new distribution partnership with Terra Matrix, the major player in the Malaysian telecoms space. Terra Matrix Sdn. Bhd. Specializes in the wholesale distribution of wireless communications and CCTV solutions, leading from the front with strategic projects across the country. It has a highly qualified and internationally certified team of engineers and specialists with a reputation for reliability and best-in-class business efficiency gained over the past decade. From engineering to design and implementation, its highly experienced team has delivered cutting-edge technological solutions to many projects all over Malaysia.

Terra Matrix chose Infinet Wireless as its preferred wireless business partner to help accelerate its efforts in the networking arena, where it delivers turnkey solutions from the engineering stage, through to design and supply, field implementation and ongoing maintenance services. This partnership will make it possible for Terra Matrix to offer its customers the best broadband wireless technology available in today’s marketplace and boost its growth objectives across a range of verticals markets.

“We are very pleased to partner with Infinet Wireless”, Mohd Daniel Kooy Bin Abdullah, CEO at Terra Matrix, commented on the new collaboration. “We use Infinet Wireless’ technology to provide voice, Internet and video surveillance services for small and large companies across a number of different industries, including the energy sector, telecommunications, homeland security and health sector.”

Founded in 2010 and based in Penang, Terra Matrix has been at the forefront of the system integration industry in Malaysia. Its core competencies are in system integration and complete network delivery, from the design, supply, installation to maintenance of private networks of all sizes. Terra Matrix focuses on gaining an in-depth understanding of the latest available technologies to guarantee that it can meet and exceed the specific requirements of its customers.

Terra Matrix has been using Infinet Wireless technology since 2013, implementing it in the scope of the successful safe city project of Pulau Pinang City Council (MBPP) and Seberang Perai City Council (MBSP). Over a period of 8 years, 6 phases of the MBPP project and 2 phases of the MBSP projects, consisting of more than 300 sites, have been implemented state-wide in Penang, significantly improving safety in the communities.

Terra Matrix has successfully integrated all the legacy CCTV systems as well as new ones into one single integrated and reliable platform, able to stream high-definition video streams coupled with an public announcement system to 9 control centers in Penang. This video-surveillance infrastructure had enabled the local authorities and law enforcement agencies to monitor hotspot areas for criminal prevention, flood areas, traffic violations, etc. This same platform is currently being extended to provide monitoring and compliance of all government restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Terra Matrix will distribute Infinet Wireless’ entire range of products and offer its customers unparalleled quality of service thanks to innovative, reliable, easy-to-integrate and high-performance technology.

Infinet Wireless’s deep experience of radio frequency innovation – and translating that into the real world needs of customers – ensures that its products combine unsurpassed reliability and technical functionality, enabling the delivery of truly flexible wireless networks with unparalleled quality of service.

July 7, 2021

ZTE reveals innovative 5G devices at MWC 2021

ZTE Corporation, a major international provider of telecommunications, enterprise, and consumer technology solutions for the mobile internet, today has revealed its next-generation 5G Indoor CPE MC8020, and shared its plans for the next under-display camera smartphone at Mobile World Congress 2021. Also, ZTE’s much-awaited devices can be seen at Mobile World Congress from 28 June through 1 July 2021 at 3F30, Hall 3, FIRA GRAN VIA.

ZTE is integrating its capabilities and expertise across handsets, mobile broadband, terminal chipset modules, and peripheral products to create a smarter 5G ecosystem. A variety of 5G products will be applied into four major application scenarios, specifically health, travel, education and entertainment.

During Mobile World Congress, attendees can experience the connected 5G ecosystem through products on display, including the ZTE 5G Portable CPE MU5001, ZTE 5G Indoor CPE MC8020, ZTE Watch GT, ZTE LiveBuds and more.

ZTE is globally recognized for industry-leading 5G terminal devices and technical innovations such as its flagship smartphone ZTE Axon Series.

The newly launched ZTE Axon 30 Ultra ushers in the next era of mobile imaging technology with its Trinity Camera System, consisting of three 64MP cameras and an 8MP periscope zoom camera. Its high-powered system leverages the triple cameras to achieve new possibilities, such as capturing simultaneous shots for narrative-level storytelling, taking full-focus photos from long, medium, and close-up distance with one click.

Soon, ZTE will unveil the second-generation under-display camera smartphone, marking another breakthrough in under-display technologies that aims to enhance the display experience.

The third-generation ZTE 5G Indoor CPE MC8020 supports both 5G SA and NSA modes, as well as Sub-6GHz and mmWave spectrum bands. Featuring the exclusive zlink Boost technology, the device enables dual-path convergence of 5G and wired broadband, allowing dual gigabit access.

Additionally, the ZTE 5G Indoor CPE MC8020 employs the latest Wi-Fi 6 AX5400 access technology, delivering 200 percent faster access speed than that of the previous generation. The four-way omnidirectional high-gain antenna provides a high-speed 5G network for up to 128 Wi-Fi users simultaneously.

Since the official appointment of Ni Fei as the new CEO of ZTE Mobile Devices, ZTE has gathered customer and industry insights to address pain points and ride big industry trends, accelerating the rollouts of innovative and highly-recognized products.

ZTE also integrated its three major smartphone brands, ZTE, Nubia and RedMagic. The integration brought the Nubia Z30 back to market with its heritage of innovation. Furthermore, in partnership with Tencent, ZTE has rolled out the new RedMagic 6, one of the most powerful gaming smartphones in the market.

ZTE has been investing in its brand with an eye set on next generation and the use of 5G. Most recently, ZTE has collaborated with the Director Zhang Yimou to produce high-quality television spots and appointed the famed Liu Haocun as ZTE’s new brand ambassador.

ZTE plans to strengthen its direct-to-consumer relationships through offline retail sites. The company is stepping up construction of offline channels with plans to build 5,000 retail sites by the end of 2021. ZTE has completed construction of 3,000 ones to date. Shoppers can visit ZTE’s first 5G experience store in Shenzhen this summer.

In Q1 2021 , ZTE’s consumer business has achieved year-on-year revenue growth of more than 60% largely driven by the integration of brand, product, and channel – a reply to ZTE’s strategic return to the terminal market.

June 29, 2021

Indosat partners Cisco for first commercial SRv6-based 5G-ready transport network in Southeast Asia

Indosat Ooredoo, Indonesia’s leading digital telco, announced the first commercial deployment of Segment Routing over IPv6 (SRv6) in Southeast Asia to support the development of its 5G services across the country. Partnered with Cisco, Indosat Ooredoo is transforming its Transport infrastructure into a state-of-the-art, programmable, 5G-ready transport network supported by IPv6 segment routing technology (SRv6) with Network Slicing, which enables a simple, scalable, agile, and reliable network to meet the needs of retail and business segment customers.

This new technology, along with Indosat Ooredoo wide fiber optic network expansions, will support the growing demand for mobile data consumption with the emergence of newer technologies like Cloud Computing and Network slicing. SRv6 intelligent routing functionality that enables deterministic routing paths will guarantee high quality and low latency on-demand services with faster data connectivity and full automation required to serve digital communities throughout Indonesia. In addition, network slicing allows Indosat Ooredoo to create new digital services for each customer by enabling the functions that cater to their needs.

Indosat Ooredoo, in partnering with Cisco, will accommodate the new requirements of 5G use cases of many business segments and industries, including fixed and mobile broadband services, through fully automated SRv6 infrastructure, and seamlessly migrate the currently existing network to the next generation software-defined network to improve customer’s digital experience with optimized TCO as one of the key elements of its network automation and digital transformation strategy.

“We are excited with the launch of Southeast Asia’s first SRv6-based 5G-ready transport network together with Cisco to support Indosat Ooredoo’s digital transformation journey, addressing our consumers and enterprise customers’ needs for on-demand and scalable network requirements. This is a major step in building our Next-Generation Programmable Transport Network that is future-ready, scalable, with automated operations enabled by Software Defined Network (SDN) and intelligent segment routing functions of SRv6. This will allow us to deliver fast, on-demand, high-quality low-latency connectivity services for 5G, cloud computing and IoT for both consumers and enterprises across Indonesia establishing a strong foundation for 5G architecture moving forward to support Indonesia’s vision as a fully digital nation” said Medhat Elhusseiny, Chief Technology and Information Officer of Indosat Ooredoo.

“Indosat Ooredoo has an intense focus on improving service quality for its customers while driving the efficiency as well as the new revenue creation,” said Sanjay Kaul, President of APJ Service Provider, Cisco. “With the launch of SRv6 network programming, Indosat Ooredoo is pioneering the next phase of IP networking through simplification, automation, and championing the needs of its customers. With the capabilities provided by SRv6, Indosat Ooredoo, powered by Cisco, aims to support Indonesia as it continues its digital economic transformation to drive operational efficiencies, customer experience, as well as product and service innovation across their organizations. Together, Indosat Ooredoo and Cisco can ensure a better network, digital experience, and a more inclusive future for all Indonesians.”

June 29, 2021

Rakuten Mobile partners Cisco to advance network for 5G and IoT services

Cisco and Rakuten Mobile, Inc. today announced a major milestone for Rakuten Mobile’s network infrastructure in support of efforts to build a better, more inclusive internet for the future.

Rakuten Mobile operates the world first’s fully cloud-native mobile network. It launched 4G service in Japan in April 2020, and launched 5G non-standalone (NSA) services in September 2020 in record time. With four million subscribers today, Rakuten Mobile continues to advance and scale its network to support new demands driven by the growth of remote and mobile workers.

With the implementation of Segment Routing over IPv6 (SRv6) and Cisco Routed Optical Networking, Rakuten Mobile plans to expand its capabilities to support enterprise customers with 5G and IoT services. To support its future 5G SA services with network slicing capabilities, Rakuten Mobile will introduce SRv6 micro-segments, an extension to the SRv6 network programming model that is key to addressing multi-domain 5G deployments across its network. Cisco Customer Experience (CX) will plan and implement the overall architecture and design.

Transitioning to SRv6 will help Rakuten Mobile increase network resiliency and support a wider range of Service Level Agreements (SLAs) that are foundational for upcoming 5G and IoT services. With Cisco Routed Optical Networking, Rakuten Mobile can consolidate coherent pluggable optics into a router, making the entire network more automated to deploy services faster (from 100 days down to 40), reduce power consumption by nearly 30 percent, and increase profitability through high-quality services at a competitive price.

“Reimagining mobile networking is at the very heart of Rakuten Mobile’s strategy, and our decision to go full-speed ahead on SRv6 and Cisco Routed Optical Networking demonstrates our effort to take advantage of technology innovation at every layer of the stack,” said Tareq Amin, Chief Technology Officer, Rakuten Mobile. “We knew that Cisco would walk in lock-step with us as we worked through each phase needed to implement this new technology and align it to our business goals.”

“Cisco and Rakuten Mobile are on a path to profoundly change the way network infrastructure is built, in order to connect as many people as possible to quality internet services,” said Jonathan Davidson, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Mass-Scale Infrastructure Group, Cisco. “Rakuten Mobile continues to mark important milestones to take its network to the next-level, and together we are showcasing the blueprint for the internet for the future to support our world of wireless and cloud- powered experiences.”

June 28, 2021