Rakuten Mobile, Inc. is among Japan’s established telcos, having started in 2018. Although relatively new, the telco is proving to be a tough competitor. They have reported that the total subscriptions for Mobile Network Operator (MNO) and Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) services surpassed 5.68 million at the end of Q1 2022, reaching 97% population coverage for Rakuten 4G network as of March 2022.
Rakuten Group is organised into three distinct segments – Internet services, FinTech, and Mobile.
In Q1 2022, the recorded revenue of all three segments reached US$3.25 billion, achieving double-digit growth of +11.7%. The increase in mobile users and device sales helped drive a growth in mobile revenue to US$600 million in Q1 FY2022, a significant increase of +44% Y-o-Y.
The young telco has hit above 95% coverage of 4G with 44,000 base stations in Japan, prioritising virtualisation. An additional 4,000 5G base stations have been deployed so far.
Drive for CX
We are also moving forward with the Rakuten Communications Platform (RCP), a cloud-native telco platform that allows operators, governments or enterprises to build secure and open mobile networks… More than ten global customers are already using parts of the platform in their networks. RCP has the exciting potential to generate revenue equal to or even greater than the mobile carrier business. – Hiroshi Mikitani, Chairman and CEO
twimbit conducted a detailed study to identify the top 10 telcos in APAC to ace customer experience, benchmarking them across four pillars, viz., digital experience, service experience, employee experience and brand experience.
Coming in at 4th place was Rakuten Mobile, with its strong drive for digital experience. Equaling au KDDI in digital experience, Rakuten approached things differently by building a low-cost infrastructure to accommodate faster expansion of both 4G and 5G base stations. In addition, the company utilises virtualisation as a core component of its infrastructure, giving rise to a better customer experience and a larger coverage area.
Key initiatives
Leveraging tech to offer unparalleled price competitiveness
To provide low prices while providing exceptional customer experience, Rakuten focused on building a low cost infrastructure. The use of cutting-edge technology has enabled them to become the world’s first end-to-end fully virtualised mobile network, enabling significant reductions in CAPEX and OPEX.
With this, Rakuten has the power to offer low prices and compete with other telco companies. Furthermore, by utilising simple, low-cost base stations, Rakuten can deploy new services and achieve a low-cost transition to 5G. This approach also enables them to meet the goal of deploying 10,000 5G base stations within 2022.
Rakuten Ecosystem
The pandemic saw a rapid transition for many businesses to become digital. Rakuten Mobile is among the only telcos to create a whole ecosystem, viz., the Rakuten Ecosystem. This ecosystem supports their entire online business (Rakuten Card, Rakuten Bank, and Rakuten Pay). Rakuten ecosystem supports more than 100 million members and offers over 70 services today.
Employee-led, bottom-up quality improvement activities
The telco established a division to address the challenges employees faced while also providing opportunities to enhance their quality and productivity. Programs are held to support collaboration between colleagues, with employees fully leading the Quality Control Circle (QCC) segment.
Activities during the launch year saw high popularity, with over 1,433 employees participating and 1,253 employees participating in the training. Additionally, the telco carried out approximately 326 projects in 2020 to meet the goals of the department.
Supporting Japan’s local communities
Rakuten created a platform that allows donors to donate in return for local produce. Rakuten Hometown Tax Payment is a platform that links donors with local governments of Japan that are pursuing regional vitalisation. Donors are directed to dedicated pages for a local product and can donate to receive said products. Furthermore, local governments that participate in the platform will receive these donations.
Saving onions from going to waste: One such example of the usage of this platform is the drop in demand for onions in Kasaoka City. This drop in demand would have totalled 400 tons of onions headed for disposal. Thus, Rakuten Hometown Tax Payment platform had a dedicated page and has collected over 10,000 donations, providing the onions to the donors, creating opportunities and financial safety for local governments and the businesses operating within said areas.
How you can match up to Rakuten Mobile
Rakuten Mobile has improved its competitiveness against other big telcos in Japan, such as KDDI and NTT Docomo. Furthermore, using its low-cost infrastructure that leverages virtualisation, the telco can push out 5G base stations faster, increasing its customer coverage while providing an excellent customer experience. In addition to that, providing competitive pricing gives them an edge in the market. Rakuten Mobile differentiates with a focus across three key initiatives:
- A fully virtualised network infrastructure supports a lower cost operating model
- Cross-leverage synergies amongst different ecosystem services
- Empower employees to drive operational efficiency