All Rakuten Group articles – Page 2

Venturing & Investments

Wayra buys into eSIM startup Airalo

2021-10-13T14:45:00Z

Telefónica one of four telco investors in eSIM specialist. Funding to be used to expand to more countries and recruit more staff.

Premium

Telefónica Innovation & Venturing Roundup: Open Future expands footprint

2021-08-20T00:00:00Z

Open Future expands footprint in Spain and launches a call in Argentina; recent Wayra investments come good with VM O2 retail pilot and Movistar distribution deal.

M&A

Rakuten acquires Telefónica open RAN investment

2021-08-05T14:58:00Z

Rakuten to acquire Altiostar, Telefónica minority investment and “partner of choice”. Telefónica relationship with the US-based open RAN specialist extends beyond stake holding, with collaboration in network development and deployment in Europe and Latin America.

Suppliers & SCM

Altiostar flagged as supplier for Vodafone partner AST SpaceMobile

2021-01-07T14:53:00Z

Vodafone signals plan to integrate SpaceMobile service with Vodacom, Safaricom, and Vodafone offerings initially in DRC, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, and Tanzania.

Network & Infrastructure

High hopes: Vodafone plans African SpaceMobile debut

2020-12-01T07:38:00Z

Territories such as Kenya and Democratic Republic of Congo seen as low-hanging fruit for edgy new satellite venture. Vodafone working behind scenes to build beyond investment in SpaceMobile, and exploit platform for network gain.

Partnerships & Alliances

Telefónica aims to jump-start OpenRAN with Rakuten

2020-09-17T14:21:00Z

  Group taps Japanese operator’s know-how in virtualised networks through MoU. Implied suggestion that TIP collaboration not moving fast enough for commercial “end-to-end” deployment of open RAN architectures.

Partnerships & Alliances

Telefónica backs lobbyist drive for Huawei alternatives

2020-05-06T15:26:00Z

New group effectively the political wing of operator-led efforts to develop an open RAN ecosystem, with major integrated network vendors conspicuously absent. Nokia gatecrashes launch party. 

Network & Infrastructure

Rakuten Mobile at DTW19: first cloud-native mobile network operator (from a non-telco)

2019-07-11T00:08:00Z

Inside the rebel base: CTO opens up on Rakuten Mobile and Reliance Jio green-field ventures. Network and customer experience reimagined for challenge to operator establishment. Can telco establishment translate experiences, with legacy encumbrance?