Rakuten Mobile initially launched mobile services in Japan in April 2020
Japanese operator Rakuten Mobile has reached over 6 million subscribers as of the end of December, the carrier said in a release.
“Since the full-scale launch of its mobile carrier service in April 2020, Rakuten Mobile has continued on its mission to democratize the mobile industry, offering an affordable and simple service plan while expanding the Rakuten network area through the build-out of base stations and roaming agreements,” the telco said.
“The Rakuten SAIKYO Plan – available since June 2023 – does away with the previous limit on high-speed data capacity in the domestic roaming partner network area, offering unlimited high-speed data usage in network areas nationwide with a 99.9% 4G population coverage ratio, including both the Rakuten network area and the domestic roaming partner network area,” Rakuten Mobile added.
The operator previously said it expected to reach 8-10 million mobile subscribers by the end of 2024.
Meanwhile, the telco’s network had 60,300 sites at the end of the third quarter of the year. The carrier ended Q3 with a 4G coverage of 98.8% of Japan’s territory.
Rakuten Group’s chairman Mickey Mikitani said during a previous earnings call the company is looking to improve its mobile coverage by optimizing its current network infrastructure and using 700MHz spectrum early in 2024.
The carrier said the initial 700MHz deployments will take place in urban areas to fill remaining coverage holes that could not be addressed by its 1.7GHz spectrum and roaming deals.
Rakuten Mobile had received approval from the Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications for its special base station deployment plan to expand mobile services at 700 MHz, also known as the “platinum band.”
The Japanese government had previously said that Rakuten Mobile was the only company to apply for the 700 MHz slots during the application period, according to local press reports.
Spectrum bands in the 700-900 MHz range have better indoor building penetration and enable mobile services indoors and outdoors; in Japan, they are currently allocated to local carriers NTT Docomo, KDDI and SoftBank. Rakuten Mobile has not previously had access to frequencies in that range.
Rakuten Mobile previously said its spectrum in the so-called platinum band (800/900 MHz) will enable the company to boost 5G coverage in 2024 by making use of existing assets.
In 2022, Rakuten Mobile signed a new three-year roaming agreement with rival operator KDDI and its subsidiary, Okinawa Cellular.
Rakuten Mobile said the new roaming deal includes areas not covered by a previous roaming agreement, including high-traffic shopping districts in Tokyo’s 23 wards as well as the cities of Osaka and Nagoya.
Under the terms of the deal, KDDI will continue to provide roaming services for select indoor locations such as subways, underground shopping centers, tunnels and other indoor facilities and rural areas. The new roaming agreement was effective as of June 2023 and extends to September 2026.
The telcos said the new agreement replaces a deal announced in 2018, running to March 2026.
