News to Notice: Rakuten Japan e-commerce builds new LTE-only 4G/5G cell biz separate(?) from voice.
MVNO biz means using someone else's network, like StraightTalk in USA.
Article suggests a stand-alone operation.
This parallels developments at Softbank biz unit Sprint in USA and RJIO in India.
IP-only cellular seems to be a proven business.
FYI
FWIW
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telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com
Former Reliance Jio exec Tareq Amin joins Rakuten as telecom CTO
ETTelecom | May 30, 2018, 17:07 IST ... joined Japanese e-commerce group Rakuten as the chief technology officer for its new telecom company.
"I am taking the CTO role of one of the largest e-commerce companies in Japan, Rakuten, to build another green field cloud-native 4G/5G network," Amin told ET.
Rakuten, which has already been operating a successful mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) business, recently got a nod to become the nation’s fourth major wireless carrier. Japan's Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry advisory board recently approved Rakuten’s application for a 4G mobile license. Rakuten is aiming to start offering mobile services in 2019 and plans to secure up to ¥600 billion to invest in base stations, the Japan Times recently reported.
... At Jio, Amin was responsible for overseeing all aspects of the technology development and automation organization, including innovation, development, and operation. He served companies like Huawei and T-Mobile in the US before joining Jio in Mumbai, India. |
