Samsung just locked down a major infrastructure win in Japan's competitive telecom market. The electronics giant will supply Open RAN-compliant 5G radios to Rakuten Mobile, powering the carrier's nationwide network expansion across Japan. The deal marks Samsung's first major partnership with Rakuten Mobile and reinforces the company's growing presence in the Open RAN ecosystem, where interoperability between vendors has long been telecom's holy grail. Commercial deployment kicks off later this year.
Samsung Electronics just scored a significant infrastructure win that could reshape Japan's 5G landscape. The company will supply Open RAN-compliant 5G radios to Rakuten Mobile, supporting the carrier's ambitious nationwide network expansion. After months of testing and validation, the partnership is set to enter commercial deployment in 2026, according to Samsung's announcement.
This isn't just another telecom equipment deal. Rakuten Mobile has built its reputation on being the world's first fully virtualized, cloud-native mobile network operator. By choosing Samsung as its radio provider, the Japanese carrier is betting on Open RAN technology to deliver the kind of flexibility and cost efficiency that traditional proprietary systems can't match. It's a validation of Samsung's years-long push into virtualized RAN and O-RAN leadership, built through large-scale commercial deployments worldwide.
The technical scope is substantial. Samsung will provide a full suite of O-RAN compliant radios, including low-band 700MHz and mid-band 1.7GHz solutions, plus Massive MIMO radios supporting the 3.8GHz band. These compact, lightweight radios can be mounted on buildings and poles, making them ideal for dense urban environments where space is at a premium. The Massive MIMO solutions are particularly critical, they'll accelerate network capacity in high-traffic areas, ensuring subscribers get consistent high-speed connectivity even when the network is under stress.
