Network Complete virtualization win...
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Network Complete virtualization wins for Rakuten mobile phones over 3 years
business
TweetFacebookAugust 6, 2021 7:00 Weekly post
[Last pirate / serialization first part] The world economy has shifted from "manufacturing" to "data" without mass.Japan, who has been successful after the war, has spent the "lost 30 years", but only two entrepreneurs have resisted the trend.Mr. Hiroshi Mikitani of Rakuten and Masayoshi Son of Softbank, a darling of the IT industry.The two that destroy the existing values are now scattering sparks in the mobile phone business.Yasuyuki Onishi reports on the back of the Weekly Post Short -term intensive series, "Last Pirate", the back of the summit battle that tells the Japanese economy's ups and downs.
Rakuten entered the mobile phone market in the spring of 2020 as the fourth MNO (mobile communication business operator with his own line).Rakuten Mobile uses a completely new technology called "complete virtualization of network".The signal processing of mobile phones so far requires a dedicated hardware.This is the world's first attempt to use it with software using a server everywhere without using special equipment.This reduces costs and lower mobile charges.Looking back on Rakuten on the night before entering a mobile phone.(Pronunciation abbreviated in sentence)
* * * One day in September 2018, Mikitani gathered three executives in the president's office at the Rakuten Group headquarters in Futakotamagawa, Tokyo.Yoshihisa Yamada, who has served as Rakuten Mobile President of Rakuten Mobile as the right arm of Mikitani, and Yasufumi Hirai of CIO (Chief of the Last Information) who moved to Rakuten from the Japanese corporation of Cisco Systems, and 3.Rakuten Mobile CTO (Chief Technical Officer), Talek Amin, which Mikitani transferred from Rilean Geo, a major in Indian telecommunications giant.Mikitani cut out when the three were all together.
"GUYS.This is the future! (Everyone, this is the future!) "
In 2018, when he decided to enter a mobile phone, Rakuten was also trying to build a network with existing technology.There was no plan to take a technical challenge, ordering a base station from Huawei in China, a major telecommunications equipment company, to reduce capital investment.
It is Talek who brought the idea of "virtualization".However, when I heard the story of Mikitani that day, Talek was the most surprised.
In the spring of 2020, when Rakuten Mobile started service, Mikitani suddenly said, "All networks will be fully virtualized."I wasn't in such a heart in Talek.
"At first, we will gradually increase the virtualization part while using partially using virtualization of existing networks."
That is the plan presented by Talek.Talek saw Yamada and Hirai's faces to seek help, but he only scoops his head.(My general doesn't ask once you say it.) They said so.By the way, Rakuten has been in the company's official language since 2011, and all meetings are English.
From this day, Rakuten's fierce challenge for three years has begun.And Mikitani beat the bet.
Completely virtualized networks continue to handle the signals emitted by nearly 5 million mobile phones without a major accident.Everyone succeeded in fully virtualization that said "impossible."
Of course, there are areas that are difficult to connect.Somewhere an unexpected problem may occur.But it is "a problem that spends money and time solving" (Mikitani).
On June 30, 2021, Rakuten Mobile selected the world's most prestigious mobile trade fair, MWC (Mobile World Congress), as a company that has achieved the most innovative business in the field of mobile phones that year.・ We received the Mobile Award.
