Rakuten wesentlich besser als Rocket

Subscriber Adds and Network Roll-Out Key Focus for Rakuten, Dish and 1&1Drillisch

MARCH 31, 2022 |BY GARETH OWEN

https://www.counterpointresearch.com/rakuten-dish-11-drillisch/  

Rakuten is an important owner and an important client

AST SpaceMobile reveals their BlueWalker 3 test satellite will launch in mid-August

JUNE 14, 2022

AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ: ASTS), the company building the first and only space-based cellular broadband network accessible directly by standard mobile phones, has confirmed plans to launch their BlueWalker 3 test satellite from Cape Canaveral**, Florida, during the week of August 15, 2022.**

https://news.satnews.com/2022/06/14/...ite-will-launch-in-mid-august/

BlueWalker 3 carries a 693-square-foot phased array that is designed to test cellular broadband communications directly with standard mobile phones, from space, for the first time. AST SpaceMobile has invested approximately $85 million (€81.43 million) in the satellite’s development and the company’s engineers have successfully conducted more than 800 ground tests with BlueWalker 3. To date, the company has over 2,300 patent and patent-pending claims in support of its technology. The BlueWalker 3 mission is expected to complete the company’s initial research and development program and facilitate integration testing with mobile network operators around the world.

“The launch of BlueWalker 3 is the culmination of years of effort by our engineers to let us test connecting the phone in your pocket, with no modifications to the phone, directly with one of our satellites in space,” says Abel Avellan, chairman and CEO of AST SpaceMobile. “This revolutionary technology supports our mission to eliminate the connectivity gaps faced by more than 5 billion mobile subscribers today moving in and out of coverage, and bring cellular broadband to approximately half of the world’s population who remain unconnected. We want to close the gap between the digital ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’.”

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted AST SpaceMobile an experimental license that allows the company to test BlueWalker 3 satellite-to-phone connectivity in the United States at sites in Texas and Hawaii. Once BlueWalker 3 is operational, the company plans to conduct testing on 5 different continents, in coordination with leading mobile network operators like Vodafone, Rakuten Mobile, Orange and others.

AST SpaceMobile’s investors and strategic partners in support of the company and its mission are leaders in cellular technology and infrastructure, digital services and the internet, including Vodafone, Rakuten Mobile and American Tower.

AST SpaceMobile is building the global cellular broadband network in space to operate directly with standard, unmodified mobile devices based on our extensive IP and patent portfolio. Our engineers and space scientists are on a mission to eliminate the connectivity gaps faced by today’s five billion mobile subscribers and finally bring broadband to the billions who remain unconnected.

https://www.vanillaplus.com/2022/06/14/...phone-connectivity-testing/  

3 days ago

Rakuten is playing a strong role in this Japanese golf renaissance. This year, we signed our first affiliation partnership with a professional golfer, Mone Inami. She has won a total of 11 tournaments* on the Japan Ladies Professional Golfers’ Association (JLPGA) tour. Starting this season, Inami is playing on tour sporting a Rakuten logo-bearing cap and clothing. She is already offering golf lovers instructional videos on the Rakuten Golf Channel on YouTube.

Because Japanese golf is ready for a boost. Although Japan is home to half of all the golf courses in Asia, the industry has flagged since the 1980s. Back then, thousands of courses were built and the game boomed, but until recently, the number of golfers nationwide had been in decline for years.

However, the global pandemic has sparked a resurgence of interest in the outdoor sport. The benefits of playing golf are being recognized by people of all ages and demographics, and it has been gaining back its popularity, acquiring new players in the market.

Rakuten is addressing the challenges in the industry, moving to democratize and inject some hipness into the sport. Our Rakuten GORA golf reservation service allows affordable tee times to be booked with a few clicks at 1,900 courses across Japan, and even allows for competition entries and lesson bookings at select courses.

The service has integrated itself with the Rakuten Ecosystem to make each golfer’s experience more engaging and rewarding by providing Rakuten Points to users, Japan’s number one loyalty point program in overall customer satisfaction.

https://rakuten.today/blog/...en-gora-on-japans-golf-renaissance.html  

Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten to feature dedicated South Australian page with 2500 products

MAY 31, 2022

Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten has agreed to sell more than 400 additional South Australian food and beverage products in a new partnership with the government of SA.

South Australian companies that will feature their products on the Tasting South Australia page include NovaFarms, Buzz Honey, Hither & Yon, Prohibition Liquor Co, Southern Kuya, Apiwraps and Pet Snacks.
Prohibition Liquor CEO Wes Heddles says the e-commerce platform was the most logical option to enter the Japanese export market.

“We saw Rakuten as the most premium opportunity to launch into Japan as a sophisticated alcohol market and then use the sales data as market research to present our range to more traditional retailers; bars, bottle shops and restaurants, knowing what products are most popular,” he said.

https://www.smartcompany.com.au/industries/retail/...south-australia/
 

April 14, 2022

https://symphony.rakuten.com/blog/...-your-mobile-network-with-an-app
 

No more trials: “We’ve proven it works, we know it works: the question is what you want to achieve as an outcome.“

Rakuten Symphony has already announced a major deal in Europe with German newcomer 1&1 and is on the hunt for more customers in the region, though Hollingworth said trials were off the table.

“We don’t engage in trials anymore because we don’t understand what we’re trialling,” he said, pointing to Rakuten Mobile’s deployment in Japan.

“We’ve proven it works, we know it works: the question is what you want to achieve as an outcome. It’s got to be something [a project] where you’re committing to roll something out, as we haven’t got the bandwidth [for lots of trial builds]”.

He added lengthy trials were “where companies like us go to die”.

https://www.mobileworldlive.com/featured-content/...change-their-tune  

https://www.statista.com/statistics/275099/...rtphone-users-in-japan/  

Dish using a feature of Rakuten Symphony's software-offers

DISH enters US 5G market already worth over $26bn but service ‘not quite ready for prime time’, says GlobalData

16 June, 2022 at 12:54 PM

Following the news that DISH Network appears to have met the FCC’s deadline for it to provide 5G service covering 20% of the US population as of June 14, 2022, Tammy Parker, principal technology analyst at GlobalData, a data and analytics company, is offering a trenchant view.

“DISH quietly revealed yesterday that its cloud-native, open-RAN (O-RAN), standalone 5G network is live in more than 120 cities. This marks DISH’s entry into a mobile 5G services market that GlobalData estimates generated $27.7 billion (€26.62 billion) in revenue during 2021 across North America, with the US accounting for $26.6 billion (€25.56 billion). By 2026, mobile 5G revenue in the region is expected to reach $195.7 billion (€188.06 billion),” she says.

Parker concludes, “DISH predicts its wireless unit will eventually reach 30 million to 40 million retail wireless subscribers, which seems especially optimistic given the competitive dynamics of the US market. Nonetheless, now that DISH has launched service in numerous markets, the company finally has the opportunity to prove it has what it takes to become a viable wireless competitor.”

https://www.vanillaplus.com/2022/06/16/...prime-time-says-globaldata/  

Rakuten Mobile, Inc. Rakuten Mobile will release “OPPO Reno7 A” on June 30th (Thursday)

2022-06-15 by rehow

Rakuten Mobile, Inc. (hereinafter referred to as “Rakuten Mobile”) has a smartphone “OPPO Reno 7 A” compatible with the 5th generation mobile communication system (hereinafter referred to as “5G”) equipped with an organic EL display, which features a brilliant back surface and a matte texture. , From Thursday, June 30, 2022, it will be on sale at the Rakuten Mobile official website, Rakuten Mobile official Rakuten Ichiba store, and Rakuten Mobile Shop for 45,800 yen (tax included).

https://re-how.net/all/1990080/  

Rakuten Rakuma has taken on an innovative new business strategy that involves showcasing second-hand listings by reuse businesses in addition to focusing on the existing C2C (consumer-to-consumer) marketplace. By creating a path into the B2C (business-to-consumer) business that dominates over 50% of the reuse market for second-hand goods and working to enhance the circular economy, Rakuten is pushing forward toward realizing a sustainable society.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPFZkQ91lPM
 

Rakuten Group, Inc. (OTCMKTS:RKUNY – Get Rating) – Investment analysts at Jefferies Financial Group lifted their FY2022 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for Rakuten Group in a research report issued on Monday, May 9th. Jefferies Financial Group analyst H. Sato now anticipates that the company will post earnings per share of ($0.78) for the year, up from their prior forecast of ($0.79). Jefferies Financial Group also issued estimates for Rakuten Group’s FY2023 earnings at ($0.26) EPS.

https://www.defenseworld.net/2022/05/12/...al-group-otcmktsrkuny.html

But the operative cash flow per share in 2023 will be after my estimates positive, because the high deprecation for the investments of Rakuten Moible in the last three years will not result in cash outflows.  

Total of 44 ongoing industry engagements of Rakuten Symphony

Rakuten Symphony also noted that out of the 110 potential customers it has currently identified, it now has 13 existing deals, seven are in the process of closing, and another 24 are in a proposal phase, though it did not specify any names: That gives it a grand total of 44 ongoing industry engagements.

https://www.telecomtv.com/content/open-ran/...-technology-push-44629/  

Why Choose Rakuten Marketing aka Rakuten Advertising?

Rakuten has already spanned its business on 70+ platforms. It includes the eCommerce industry, communications, digital content, FinTech, etc. So, this is undoubtedly a great platform to promote your products worldwide.

Besides the huge customer base, there are several reasons for choosing Rakuten Advertising to promote your products. Here are some of those –

         •§Rakuten provides the best omnichannel marketing experience.
         •§A dedicated E-Commerce Consultant (ECC) is assigned to every registered shop.
         •§Lots of coupon codes are available that attract customers.
         •§It offers a certain percentage of cash back for each purchase.
         •§You can increase ROI on resale purchases.
         •§It offers better customer service.

Because of its huge market coverage and benefits, Rakuten Advertising has become a great platform to promote your products online.

Final Words

Rakuten Ichiba is a rapidly growing eCommerce platform. Right now, Rakuten has over 70+ businesses and serves 1.6 billion people around the world.

So if you want to deliver your product on such a huge marketplace, it’s high time to open a store on Rakuten and upload products via the CTX Feed product feed generator.

Start generating your revenue!

https://webappick.com/...our-online-customers-with-rakuten-marketing/
 

Increase in both ARPU and the number of Rakuten mobile subscribers

On May 13, 2022, Rakuten announced a new pricing policy for Rakuten mobile starting from July 2022, which removes the currently free low-data usage band and awards users with more Rakuten points and free trials of Rakuten’s other services. From third-quarter 2022 onwards, we expect MNO revenue growth to accelerate driven by the increase in both ARPU and the number of Rakuten mobile subscribers.

https://www.morningstar.com/stocks/xtks/4755/quote  

Rakuten issued JPY 150bn (about $ 1.1 billion) bonds with a only 0.72%-coupons without any problems

Straight Bond Information

Bond Name Issue Date Maturity Date Term

21st Unsecured Bond June 13,2022 June 13, 2025 3 Years

Issue Amount Coupon Rate

JPY 150bn 0.72%

https://global.rakuten.com/corp/investors/stock/bond.html  

The Revolution needs to start every day, not wait ten years for “yet another G”

At the end of the day, it’s a mistake to categorize open RAN as a technology, or simply as a course correction to an existing RAN strategy. If anything, the decision to adopt open principles in the RAN should be an entirely logical consequence of a business strategy aimed at driving down the total cost of operations, without sacrificing quality or security.

Telecom’s biggest challenges today come down to its fundamental operating model. The discussion about open RAN today is not about whether it will be adopted – almost all stances in the industry point to a “when”, not “if” question. The question is how to accelerate change with fixed operational costs. The Rakuten Symphony answer to that is Symworld, the only industrialized automation platform that has been proven at scale.

Open RAN’s goal of greater diversity in the telecom supply chain remains worthwhile. But operators must not limit ownership to the part of the business responsible for the radio access network. The real payoff from open RAN comes from tackling more fundamental issues.

https://symphony.rakuten.com/blog/...-open-ran-the-answer-for-telecom  

Value of Rakuten Bank alone is between $ 4 billion and $ 7 billion

Deposits = 7,584,374 million JPY (about $ 56 billion)

Net income = 20,474 million JPY (about $152 million)

https://www.rakuten-bank.co.jp/english/images/news-220513.pdf
 

Robin.io Partners with Lekha Wireless and Blue Arcus to accelerate highly scalable custom carrier-grade network solutions

SAN JOSE, CA, Feb 17, 2022 – (ACN Newswire) – Robin.io, a provider of hyper-converged Telco-Grade cloud-native Kubernetes platform, simplifying enterprises and 5G service delivery infrastructure, announces a strategic collaboration to offer Automation and Orchestration capabilities for the disaggregated 5G market. The partnership with Lekha Wireless and Blue Arcus enables IoT, Private/Enterprise Networks, MEC use cases and facilitates Industry 4.0 use cases.

With over 70+ U.S. patents in the areas of application and infrastructure awareness, application orchestration, storage architecture, and data management, Robin.io aims to accelerate highly scalable custom carrier-grade cloud-native solutions.

Lekha Wireless has developed C.U., D.U., and R.U. components for the O-RAN (Open Radio Access Network), customizing them for specific applications and network topologies, including 5G N.R. technology designed to enable use cases beyond cellular networks. The adoption of Open RAN architecture has opened opportunities for many smaller operators to build a disaggregated network and offer new models like a network as a service.

Blue Arcus offers a cloud-native 5G core, providing a reliable, scalable and distributed autonomous network solution that helps mobile network operators and system integrators build their own solutions to deploy IoT, Private/Enterprise Networks, MEC networks.

About Robin.io

Robin.io, the 5G and application automation platform company, delivers products that automate the deployment, scaling and life cycle management of data- and network-intensive applications and for 5G service chains across the edge, core and RAN. The Robin platform is used globally by companies including BNP Paribas, Palo Alto Networks, Rakuten Mobile, SAP, Sabre and USA. Robin.io is headquartered in Silicon Valley, California.

About Blue Arcus

Blue Arcus is a global end-to-end 4G/5G mobile network software provider, delivering telecom solutions that are 3GPP compliant and built on an open and distributed architecture.

With many live deployments across Pacific Asia, Middle East and Africa, we have been helping MNOs enhance customer experience by providing cost-effective, fast, and reliable voice and data services. The SMART Compact network edge of core makes it suitable for providing high speed, secure and low-latency services.

About Lekha Wireless

Lekha Wireless Solutions was established in 2010 with a vision to translate deep domain expertise in wireless communications into quality technology products and solutions. Lekha is 5G RAN vendor compliant to ORAN architecture. We have experience in designing and deploying two generations of products, including WiMAX and 4G technology. Lekha is based out of Bengaluru, the silicon valley of India.

https://coingenius.news/...le-custom-carrier-grade-network-solutions/  

Rakuten Symphony expects to record a significant amount of revenue in 2022, with growth accelerating at the beginning of 2023

Rakuten Symphony CEO Tareq Amin said its platform business is now in the delivery stage after booking contracts and expects to record a significant amount of revenue in 2022, with growth accelerating at the beginning of 2023.

Amin noted the company will continue to report consolidated earnings, explaining its mobile business is the testing ground for Rakuten Symphony’s products and services.

https://www.mobileworldlive.com/asia/asia-news/...ility-as-costs-peak  

Rakuten Mobile will save a quarter billion $ every quarter through ditching of roaming

Ditching KDDI's roaming service should ultimately save Rakuten between JPY120 billion and JPY140 billion ($1.1 billion) annually, equal to about 30% of Rakuten Mobile's operating loss for 2021, according to figures previously provided by New Street Research.

https://www.lightreading.com/5g/...th-to-profit-in-2023/d/d-id/777554  

Why ditching of roaming costs is very import, you can read in this article from some months ago

Rakuten Group announced second quarter financial results for 2021 on 11.

He explained that although the expansion of the company’s area “has reduced the amount of roaming data used per person”, the increase in subscribers “has increased the total cost of roaming”. Hiroshi Mikitani, President and CEO of Rakuten Group, who constantly said at the press conference that “roaming costs are high.

https://remonews.com/japaneng/...nication-rcp-ecosystem-keitai-watch/
cp-ecosystem-keitai-watch/  

Valution for yearly fintech-operating income of $660 million?

Fintech operating income of Rakuten in 2021 was 89.1 billion JPY (= $ 660 million)

Rakuten Group's quarterly fintech operating profit 2013-2022

Published by C. Diep, Jun 1, 2022

In the first quarter of 2022, the Rakuten Group's internet finance operating profit amounted to around 23 billion Japanese yen. This income was generated through Rakuten Card, Rakuten Bank, Rakuten Securities as well as Rakuten e-money "Edy" among others.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/223368/...nance-operating-profit/
 

Kobo Books is currently the lowest priced of the big audiobook platforms

Listen to your literature

By Amy-Mae Turner on June 16, 2022

The Kobo Books platform is another that started with hardware; the original Kobo eReader was launched back in 2010. Rakuten Kobo still makes electronic reading tablets, but the apps, available for iOS(opens in a new tab) and Android(opens in a new tab), can be used as standalone software on your existing smartphone.

Kobo Books is currently the lowest priced of the big audiobook platforms, but despite the more affordable monthly cost, offers over six million eBooks and audiobooks. A Kobo Books membership will cost you $9.99 a month after an initial 30-day free trial. Each month, your monthly fee of $9.99 gets you one credit to use on a new audiobook, regardless of its listed price.

When you browse the Kobo Books site you can view titles by traditional categories, but Kobo Books also offers some interesting curated collections, such as "Audiobooks that will change your life", "Audiobooks that come alive through voice", and, "Exciting audiobooks for kids." Once you've bought an audiobook via the site, it will sync to your phone.

Kobo Books' audiobook player has a clean and uncluttered design. App features include the ability to adjust listening speed, the option to set a sleep timer, and a quick tap function to skip back or forwards ten seconds.

Kobo Books is available for download on the Apple App Store(opens in a new tab) and the Google Play Store(opens in a new tab).

https://mashable.com/article/best-audiobook-apps  

The 15 analysts offering 12-month price forecasts for Rakuten Group Inc have a median target of 8.35, with a high estimate of 20.92 and a low estimate of 5.05. The median estimate represents a +83.87% increase from the last price of 4.54.

https://money.cnn.com/quote/forecast/forecast.html?symb=RKUNY  

Insurance Business Supports New Challenges for Rakuten

20 June 2022

Did you know about the various synergies that Rakuten's Insurance Business is creating within the Rakuten Ecosystem? Offering insurance products for more than 25 businesses and services across the Rakuten Group, the Insurance Business is working hard to provide safety and security for companies and Rakuten members. In this video, RNN highlights the ways that Rakuten Group is utilizing technology to enhance its services with drone tech from Rakuten's Unmanned Solution Department and the incorporation of Rakuten Mobile's 5G network.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aT6YyZK84Oo