As well as Rakuten Mobile, KDDI has started to deploy open vRAN, and SoftBank is also interested – says Omdia
In sum – what to know:
Leading APAC – Japan is Asia-Pacific’s leading Open vRAN market, with Rakuten operating the largest fully virtualized O-RAN network globally.
Uneven progress – Docomo, KDDI and SoftBank are advancing Open RAN and vRAN, but large-scale deployments remain gradual.
Integration barrier – Maturity and integration challenges, combined with reliable legacy networks, are slowing rapid O-RAN transition.
Japan is emerging as a key market for Open RAN (O-RAN) in Asia-Pacific, although large-scale vRAN adoption remains limited, according to Pascal Remy, principal analyst at Omdia. “Japan is the leading market for open vRAN in Asia-Pacific, and one of the leaders globally,” Remy told RCR Wireless News.
He noted that Rakuten Mobile “still operates the world’s largest open vRAN network.” Beyond Rakuten Mobile, O-RAN is gaining traction across the country. NTT Docomo has widely adopted O-RAN and it has also started deploying vRAN. However progress on the deployment of vRAN at scale is unclear, Remy said. “KDDI has also started deploying open vRAN, while SoftBank seems especially interested in vRAN and its collaboration with Nvidia,” he added.
Remy said Rakuten’s influence has been more visible internationally than domestically. “Rakuten Mobile has indeed been a pioneer in fully virtualized O-RAN, but it perhaps had more influence outside Japan than in Japan,” he said, citing its impact on Dish in the U.S. and 1&1 in Germany. He added that cooperation with Rakuten Symphony shows growing interest in its model.
On future momentum, Remy does not single out one operator: “I believe all of them have different strategies and will continue with their progressive adoption, and their respective timelines.”
As for challenges, “maturity and integration continue to be perceived as the main barriers to O-RAN expansion across APAC,” he said, noting that reliable legacy networks reduce the urgency for full-scale transition.
