Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten gets Indian firms on board for 5G

Rakuten is tying up with Indian companies such as Sterlite Technologies for hardware and HCL, Wipro, and Tech Mahindra for software

Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten is readying for the big day. In September, it’s planning to launch the world’s first 5G network based on open radio access network (RAN) technology in Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka to begin with. For a flawless take-off, it has enlisted the help of Indian technology companies. If successful, the disruptive technology — open radio access network or open RAN — can pose a direct challenge to dominant players such as Huawei, Nokia, and Ericsson in 5G services.

Rakuten is looking at both acquisitions and alliances. For instance, it is tying up with Indian companies such as Sterlite Technologies for hardware and HCL, Wipro, and Tech Mahindra for software. It is also open to collaboration with Reliance Industries as part of its effort to build its 5G network in Japan before unleashing it globally.

The company is also in the final stages of acquiring Indore-based Innoeye, which has a research and development (R&D) centre in Virginia and is building software for Rakuten’s wireless network.

 

Representative director and CTO of Rakuten Mobile Tareq Amin, who’s spearheading the new 5G networks globally, said his firm had outsourced the manufacturing of WiFi platform hardware to Sterlite in a first such step. 

To begin with, it is outsourcing WiFi access points to test the validity and quality of the new vendor. For software, Rakuten is in talks with Wipro on a wide range of areas. Rakuten is also engaging with HCL to develop carrier grade WiFi platforms. Amin, who earlier worked in Jio, said the firm was also open to technology collaboration with the Mukesh Ambani-led company. “There is a significant cultural compatibility between our firm and Reliance. We believe in innovation and customer engagement. We don’t see Reliance as a competitor but as a possible collaborator in initiatives,” said Amin.

The areas of collaboration could be open RAN architecture and radio, with a focus on driving the costs of 5G networks down. But Rakuten has not had specific discussions. Among other India initiatives, it has also bought a substantial stake in Altiostar in which Tech Mahindra has a stake. And, most engineers developing the software are based in Altiostar’s R&D centre in Bengaluru. 

In fact, Rakuten too has a centre for R&D in Bengaluru. The centre is working on the cloud, data science, and machine learning as well as supporting the other non-telecom businesses of the group.

Amin sees a huge opportunity for Indian companies in the 5G space. “It is a moment of opportunity to become the biggest place for telecom infrastructure. Most of the telecom manufacturing is undertaken in China and Taiwan but India can leapfrog and provide an alternative supply chain for an industry which is desperately looking for alternatives,” he said.

The firm has had discussions with over 50 global telecom operators who have shown interest in the technology and are keenly watching the launch of Rakuten’s network in Japan. “We would love to test our 5G pods with operators in India and assist in co-building their networks. But currently all our attention is on getting our networks going in Japan,” said Amin.

He dismissed as “absurd” China’s criticism that the open RAN technology is being supported by the US to take on Huawei and that it would fail, just as CDMA and Wimax of the US had.