QCT and Rakuten Mobile
Disrupt the Telecom Industry
QCT servers working behind the scenes of the disruptive Rakuten Mobile network
At Mobile World Congress Barcelona 2019, Rakuten, alongside hardware and software tech giants including Intel and QCT, announced its plans to enter the telecom space.
Rakuten is one of Japan’s leading internet services companies, operating businesses in a wide range of fields, including e-commerce, fintech, digital content and communications, with over 100 million members in Japan. Rakuten Mobile, a Rakuten Group company responsible for mobile communications, has built the world’s first fully virtualized cloud-native mobile network. Together with its industry-leading partners, Rakuten Mobile has developed a fully virtualized, software-centric and automated network architecture that is also 5G-ready. This approach disrupts what the telco industry has been doing traditionally, offering dramatic CAPEX and OPEX savings and enabling more automated and agile network services.
“Rakuten Mobile has built the world’s first end-to-end cloud-native architecture,” said Tareq Amin, Rakuten Mobile’s Chief Technology Officer. “That means every function in the network has been completely virtualized, including the complex functions such as radio access. When you move your workloads to the cloud, significant efficiencies can be realized. These efficiencies translate to cost reduction in both CAPEX and OPEX, which can be passed on to the consumer. Such networks also allow for significant agility, making it possible for us to roll out innovative services to our customers at a much faster pace than others using legacy networks.”
Fig.1. Rakuten Mobile’s world’s first fully virtualized mobile network CAPEX and OPEX reductions
Rakuten Mobile also plans to offer its platform to operators globally with its Rakuten Communications Platform (RCP) to enable telcos to adopt new-generation networks based on an end-to-end cloud platform. Operating Companies (OPCOS) will benefit from RCP-validated design, cost efficiencies, agility, security, and openness to generate incremental revenue streams and introduce differentiated services to their clients.
Creating Dynamic
5G Ecosystems
Behind the curtain, QCT plays a critical role as a 5G ecosystem enabler, working with some of the world’s largest cloud service providers (CSPs) and acquiring vast experiences, capabilities, and expertise that triggered Rakuten Mobile’s interest and motivation to partner with QCT. Along with leading semiconductor chip manufacturer Intel, together they are driving fundamental changes in the way mobile telecommunication companies plan, deploy, and manage their infrastructure utilizing Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors and Intel® field programmable gate array (FPGA)-based accelerators in an underlying foundation that not only scales but also enables continued innovation to create services on the agile Rakuten Mobile network.
These companies are also expediting the network transformation journey by working with open communities in the telecom space (i.e. Open RAN Policy Coalition and the Telecom Infra Project) in order to democratize 5G technologies.
“QCT sees a natural progression of cloud computing technologies from CSPs to Telcos, and this Rakuten Mobile project further validates this trend,” said Mike Yang, President of QCT. “With our expertise and experience in data center hardware technology, we have expedited the network transformation journey in the realization of a fully virtualized 4G LTE network that can be extended to 5G.”
For more information on QCT 5G solutions visit: https://go.qct.io/telco/
Building the Infrastructure
of the Future
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