Rakuten Mobile and 1Finity (a Fujitsu company) today announced a major collaboration to deploy 1Finity’s massive MIMO (mMIMO) Open RAN radios. The radios, designed by 1Finity to use Qualcomm Dragonwing™ QRU100 platforms, will be deployed at scale this year in Rakuten Mobile’s fully virtualized, cloud-native Open RAN network. This initiative will significantly enhance Rakuten Mobile’s network capacity and coverage, delivering faster, more reliable connectivity for customers across Japan.

Leveraging 1Finity’s vast expertise in open networking and decades of RAN experience, the passively cooled O-RAN compliant mMIMO radio units (RUs) enable Rakuten Mobile to expand capacity sustainably, while providing outstanding energy efficiency and long-term reliability.

Massive MIMO technology is typically deployed in the most challenging and critical areas of the network to significantly increase capacity while improving coverage and reducing energy per bit delivered. The 1Finity mMIMO Open RAN RU (O-RU) platform uses advanced beamforming techniques and spatial multiplexing to significantly increase capacity, as compared to conventional four-transmitter/ four-receiver (4T4R) RU solutions. Among the few O-RAN compliant mMIMO radios available in the industry, the 1Finity mMIMO O-RU is also one of the first of its kind to be deployed commercially at scale.

Rakuten Mobile will deploy the 1Finity 32A37 mMIMO O-RU operating at 3.7 GHz, which will interoperate with Rakuten Symphony’s centralized unit (CU) and distributed unit (DU) via the O-RAN open fronthaul interface. This deployment complements the existing 1Finity 44R21 Open RAN RUs already providing wide coverage in the network.

“Rakuten Mobile will continue to leverage our expertise in building fully virtualized, cloud-native mobile networks compatible with Open RAN in Japan, proceeding with the rapid deployment of 5G Sub-6 base stations and expanding our service areas,” said Sudhakar Pandey, Head of Rakuten Mobile’s RAN department. “The low power consumption and high performance of the 1Finity radio platform is well-suited to help us achieve our sustainable connectivity vision.”

“Our industry-leading radio powered by Qualcomm’s advanced platforms is a game changer, enabling Rakuten Mobile to increase capacity and coverage at scale with high-capacity mMIMO, combined with the flexibility, proven interoperability and performance of 1Finity multivendor Open RAN,” said Patrik Eriksson, Vice President and Head of the Mobile System Business Unit at 1Finity.

"Qualcomm Technologies looks forward to collaborating with Rakuten Mobile and 1Finity as they develop and deploy Open RAN massive MIMO radios,” said Arun Handoo, Senior Director, Product Management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “The Dragonwing QRU100 Platform helps enable operators to achieve greater network capacity, coverage, and energy efficiency. This collaboration has the potential to drive innovation in virtualized, cloud-native mobile networks while enabling operators to achieve greater cost efficiency in 5G infrastructure.”

About Rakuten Mobile

Rakuten Mobile, Inc. is a Rakuten Group company responsible for mobile communications, centered on its mobile network operator (MNO) business in Japan. Through continuous innovation and the deployment of advanced technology, Rakuten Mobile aims to redefine expectations in the mobile communications industry in order to provide appealing and convenient services for diverse customer needs.

About 1Finity Inc.

1Finity, a Fujitsu company, is a global provider of communications networks for our connected world. We uniquely combine technological leadership and expertise in open optical and wireless networking, network automation, and applied AI/ML to design, build, operate, and maintain critical digital communications network infrastructure. Collaborating closely with ecosystem partners, we deliver transformative outcomes for service providers and network operators, and enable them to lower TCO, improve network performance, and increase energy efficiency. For more information, visit www.1Finity.com.

1FINITY and Fujitsu are trademarks of Fujitsu Limited in the United States and other countries. All rights reserved. The information provided in this press release is accurate at the time of publication and is subject to change without advance notice.

Qualcomm branded products are products of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries. Qualcomm and Qualcomm Dragonwing are trademarks or registered trademarks of Qualcomm Incorporated.

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“The low power consumption and high performance of the 1Finity radio platform is well-suited to help us achieve our sustainable connectivity vision.”