Rakuten wesentlich besser als Rocket
10/14/2021 4:06:24 AM
https://menafn.com/1102968837/...um-will-accelerate-Edge-monetisation
OCTOBER 13, 2021 Rakuten.today
During a virtual interview with Rakuten chairman and CEO Mickey Mikitani at Rakuten Optimism 2021 on October 13, Gelsinger contended that Rakuten and Intel “have changed the communications industry,” compelling the mobile world to “rethink what the future of telecommunications looks like.”
One of the big benefits of decoupling the network hardware from the software is that Rakuten can immediately take advantage of ongoing improvements in each area. “This year’s version of the silicon is better than last year’s version” Gelsinger explained. “That’s the magic of Moore’s Law. It just keeps getting better in a software-compatible way. It’s a powerful cycle.” At the same time, Intel recognizes that industry standard computing hardware needs to be optimized to handle the nuances of running a complex cellular network. To support some distinctive functions associated with radio access networks and how they process signals, Intel has developed specific hardware accelerators.
Intel is also keen to globalize the technologies and solutions it has developed and deployed with Rakuten in Japan. Underlining the importance of Intel’s partnership with Rakuten, Gelsinger said the next steps are to build new use cases on top of Rakuten’s innovative network and replicate the underlying architecture around the world. “This is the way that every network will get built in the future,” he said. “And I think that’s a great opportunity for us to partner… to change the rest of the world’s communication networks.”
https://rakuten.today/blog/...-is-a-template-for-other-operators.html
By Joanne Taaffe, Editor in Chief, TM Forum InformSeptember, 2021
https://inform.tmforum.org/...loud-native-and-open-ran-service-gains/
Angela Teng
Fresh funds for Singapore cashback startup ShopBack to grow its reach and boost its capabilities.
Adding the latest sum, ShopBack has raised US$145 million in total. It raised US$75 million in March last year.
ShopBack will use the investment to onboard new customers and merchants as well as develop new products for e-commerce and brick-and-mortar stores.
The startup showed a 150 per cent growth in revenue in 2020, compared with a year ago.
It is said to have 30 million users on its platform and has helped facilitate over US$7.3 billion in revenue for more than 5,000 merchant partners.
Founded in 2014 by Henry Chan, Joel Leong, and Shanru Lai, the seven-year-old startup has presence in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Taiwan, and Australia.
To deal with the pandemic, ShopBack has been extra-focused on optimising the business and rationalising its cost structure to operate more effectively with limited resources.
The goal is to keep expenses as low as possible without significantly slowing business growth, while also innovating on new features.
https://vulcanpost.com/765199/...ingapore-40-million-funding-temasek/
By Sean Kinney, Editor in Chief on SEPTEMBER 17, 2021
Telecoms industry analyst Stefan Pongratz, vice president of the Dell’Oro Group, this week told attendees to the Open RAN Forum that as operators connect radio site total cost of ownership with savings presented by new Open RAN architectures, revenues derived from disaggregated systems could overtake proprietary revenues in the 2025 timeframe.
He also gave a bit of a breakdown of RAN costs noting that wireless capex is around $150 billion to $160 billion per year with RAN representing between 20% and 25% of the capital spend. Drilling down to individual radio sites, this represents between 10% and 20% of total operating budgets. In terms of lowering TCO by switching to Open RAN, vRAN, or a combination of the two, “The likelihood is the majority of [the cost saving]is coming from the non-RAN bucket,” things like automation, reducing headcount and improving energy efficiency. “There’s a significant non-RAN component to keep in mind.”
Pongratz tracked spending on Open RAN solutions showing significant increases from around $100 million in the first half of 2020, to around $1 billion in the first half of 2021. And, “We have just upped short-term and longer-term projections,” as more than 80% of the top 20 global service providers by revenue have deployed, committed to deploy, or are otherwise evaluating Open RAN.
https://www.rcrwireless.com/20210917/open_ran/...y-2025-delloro-group
And the last “.5” point: There is a general shift away from traditional, monolithic systems that may have been completely provided by one vendor toward disaggregated and open systems of the future. Calling this a half-point is meant to be ironic: This is a massive change in how CSPs are conceptualizing, designing and deploying their network, not to mention the changes to their business model. Rather than selecting one equipment vendor and building a purpose-built appliance for the life of the network, CSPs are working with many vendors to select the best-of-breed components for their system that can be changed as the network demands.
Open RAN is the way of the future. It’s complicated, no doubt, but the flexibility, cost-effectiveness and performance it will provide will enable us to do far more with technology in the future than we’ve yet dreamed of.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/windriver/2021/10/01/...?sh=1327cdab7707
October 14, 2021 08:00 ET | Source: TeleSign
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 14, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TeleSign, the leading provider of customer identity and engagement solutions, is strengthening its industry-leading omnichannel messaging API with the new integration of Viber Business Messages solution. This new functionality enables brands to deliver rich, personalized experiences, provide conversational chat, and guarantee the delivery of important alerts, reminders, and notifications – all via a single, easy-to-implement API. With the addition of Viber, TeleSign provides organizations with another channel to expand regional and global reach, drive meaningful conversations, and engage with customers on the channel they prefer.
Connecting users across 190 countries and more than 30 languages, and having more than 1 billion Android downloads, Viber is home to an active, growing audience. According to Viber, the average user spends 35+ minutes and sends 30+ messages per day, and nearly 1 billion interactions occur across the Viber platform every day. With significant adoption across Europe, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, Viber is the go-to messaging platform for millions of consumers.
https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2021/...ness-Messages.html
14.10.2021
At the Qualcomm 5G Summit 2021, our experts dove into various Qualcomm 5G technologies that are driving the industry forward for our 5G Master Class series. In this episode, we focus on ORAN and VRAN.
In this video, Qualcomm Technologies Sr. Director, Product Management Gerardo Giaretta explains how 5G networks have made huge strides in the last few years. They have deployed at an astounding pace across cities and regions around the world to deliver high-quality mobile broadband and 5G infrastructure to users and businesses. These 5G networks, however, must evolve to meet the growing network demands in performance, efficiency, and low latency. That evolution will be found through innovation in radio access networks (RAN), specifically in new open RAN (ORAN) and virtualized RAN (VRAN) technologies.
Traditional RAN combined baseband processing and radio units into one system. With LTE deployment, Qualcomm used an updated centralized RAN structure to pool processing resources and leverage modern data center architectures.
Now, the virtualization of baseband processing with VRAN saves immense processing power and allows for better coordination, scalable capacity, faster deployments, lower latency, and new use cases. This is a new effective tool for certain low-capacity and high-capacity use cases for low latency and faster connections.
The implementation of ORAN ensures new interfaces and VRAN systems will be available to all service providers and infrastructure specialists. This allows unprecedented flexibility and options when it comes to structuring core 5G network deployments. Different situations may call for different interfaces, and ORAN promises the flexibility to change course and design a system that works best.
Qualcomm’s infrastructure portfolio of 5G RAN has already played a pivotal role in the deployment of small cell platforms, providing cutting-edge technology for flexible, virtualized, scalable, and interoperable cellular networks. Last year, we announced our expansion of this infrastructure portfolio for macro-cell deployments with 5G RAN Platforms. The additions of the Qualcomm radio unit platform and distributed unit platform offer a complete solution for any cell size and any future deployments.
Qualcomm enables users and transforms industries. We’re dedicated to creating high-performance 5G network infrastructure on an ORAN protocol, and working with partners to ensure the acceleration of 5G deployment across the world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ottQNnXfO4o
OCTOBER 16, 2021 09.42 EUROPE/LONDON BY CHRIS DZIADUL
Four channels from Condé Nast have joined Rakuten TV’s free programming in 42 European countries.
The VOD and streaming platform now includes Vogue, Glamour, GQ, Vanity Fair and Wired in its offer, while Condé Nast’s Bon Appétit is now also available in the UK, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.
Rakuten TV is the first platform in Europe combining TVOD (Transactional Video-on-Demand), SVOD (Subscription Video-on-Demand), AVOD (Advertising Video-on-Demand) and FAST (Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV) services.
Its linear channels are currently accessible for free on the Rakuten TV app on Samsung and LG Smart TV devices (models from 2019).
https://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2021/10/16/...ds-conde-nast-channels/
Rakuten TV partnered with WildBrain to make the iconic children’s entertainment series Teletubbies available in several territories, including the U.K., Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Denmark, among others. The partnership also delivers the animated series Caillou to viewers in Spain, France, Belgium, and Luxembourg.
In addition, in a content deal with NEW ID, the platform will offer BABY SHARK TV in 42 European countries. The channel features global sensation Pinkfong Baby Shark and is designed to suit a child’s daily routine
https://www.videoageinternational.net/2021/09/10/...mily-programming/
Faye Sutton
| 21 June 2021
A few weeks after the launch of ¡HOLA! Play on streaming service Rakuten TV's free linear channel line-up, the platform now also offers on-demand ¡HOLA! Play content in its free library, which can be accessed from the web and the app on all compatible devices.
¡HOLA! Play, part of the publishing brand HOLA!, offers hundreds of hours of content focused on the world of A-list celebrities and Royalty, plus lifestyle programming such as fashion and cookery.
Shows include El armario de, a series with episodes dedicated to reviewing the fashion and style of celebrities; celebrity biographical documentaries such as Angelina Jolie: La verdadera historia a; and weekly cooking programmes presented by top chefs.
Rakuten TV is available in 43 European countries and combines AVOD (ad-supported VOD) and FAST (ad-supported free streaming TV) services with TVOD, and access to SVOD services such as Starzplay
https://www.rapidtvnews.com/2021062160689/...spain.html#axzz79Y2DtpRM
While acknowledging that Open RAN is the future, several legacy RAN vendors are perpetuating myths to create market uncertainty and slow its adoption.
There’s more at stake in this discussion then legacy vendors protecting their market share; never before have MNOs needed the network and service agility that comes with Open RAN. The new service possibilities for 5G networks are many and competitors are aggressive. Sticking with the legacy vendors is not a good way to stay ahead of the curve.
Let’s look at three of their main issues:
Ready for prime time?
The gist of this criticism is that Open RAN software is not network ready, and still too immature for a significant role in the network. The proof against this claim is in the networks that are now running using Open RAN.
Experience with building production Open RAN networks proves that it is ready for prime time. Open RAN solutions are already deployed at scale and providing the highest level of performance in the Rakuten Mobile network in Japan, which has some of the most quality conscious consumers in the world.
The Rakuten Mobile solution supports advanced technologies, including macro, indoor/outdoor small cells, massive MIMO and mmWave radios, all supported by one Open vRAN software layer. In terms of performance, the network is delivering throughput of 1.77 Gbps on the 5G network. As for speed of deployment, the network is expected to cover 93% of the country by the end of 2021, after having only launched in April 2020.
Support for Open RAN has also been echoed by major operators, including DISH, AT&T, Verizon, Telefónica, Airtel, STC, and Deutsche Telekom. Telefónica has reaffirmed its commitment to Open RAN in recently announcing its intention to deploy 800 Open RAN sites across its networks in four countries as the next step to mass deployment.
Standards process
One of the biggest complaints is that the O-RAN Alliance is not a true standards body like 3GPP. However, the O-RAN Alliance was founded by carriers and has a role of rapidly addressing the needs of this community. O-RAN Alliance is focused on disaggregation of radio baseband and open interfaces between these disaggregated functions.
It can respond quickly to new disaggregation requirements with new specifications that are turned into open standards and, in some cases, taken up by the other standards bodies for ratification.
One proof of the effectiveness of the O-RAN Alliance standards development is the large and growing ecosystem of vendors ranging from RAN software vendors to makers of remote radio heads, servers, packet accelerators, and others. Without the standards, there would not be widescale interoperability for these ecosystem players.
The most popular O-RAN Alliance interface standards is fronthaul, which is being deployed today by operators. The O-RAN 7.2x split allows for the reduction in fronthaul bandwidth requirements compared to the CPRI interface that has been used by traditional RAN vendors.
As a result, operators can now deploy RAN architectures where the baseband is centralized. Baseband centralization helps in resource pooling and allows for deployment of centralized radio resource coordination techniques for interference mitigation and other benefits. Other interfaces are in the process of being finalized by O-RAN Alliance.
Security standards
Some in the industry have raised concerns about Open RAN security, stating that open interfaces increase the threat surface. Our view is entirely different, as multiple companies are working together in the O-RAN Alliance to define secure interfaces.
First, Open RAN deployments use commercial hardware, operating systems, virtualization platforms and other components. Each of these has built-in data security features that provide protection without needing to be replicated in Open RAN software. Also, Open RAN solutions run on cloud platforms where cloud vendors bring their years of expertise to ensure security for workloads.
Security transparency is also an important, built-in security function of Open RAN. With an open system, it is possible to identify and fix any vulnerabilities much sooner compared to a closed proprietary architecture.
Another aspect of this transparency is the ability to adopt a zero-trust approach towards security. This means there are no black boxes within the network. All modules have interfaces that can be audited by neutral security companies and can be efficiently replaced if there are vulnerabilities or non-trusted suppliers in the network.
Open RAN is introducing a mechanism where controls and checks can be introduced into networks, thus ensuring not only diversity of suppliers but also securing the backbone of networks.
Rakuten busts a few additional Open RAN myths in a recent blog post. The real-world experience of carriers with Open RAN is the ultimate proof that it is ready for prime time, based on open standards and a secure framework.
https://www.altiostar.com/disp
Wenn ein neuer Mobilfunknetzbetreiber die Bildfläche betritt, ist diesem die Aufmerksamkeit der Branche gewiss. Insbesondere, wenn zwei Schwergewichte wie 1&1 und der in Deutschland noch wenig bekannte Anbieter Rakuten aus Japan dahinter stehen. Und wenn dann noch das offene und für Furore in Mobilfunkkreisen sorgende OpenRAN Konzept beim Netzausbau zur Anwendung kommen soll, ist die Neugierde der 5G-Interessierten groß. Was kann die Branche, was können die deutschen Mobilfunknutzer erwarten?
Diese Fragen möchten wir am Mittwoch, den 27.10.2021, 11.00 bis 12.15 Uhr, beantworten. Im Rahmen unserer Event-Reihe #5Gmasters haben wir unter dem etwas kryptisch klingenden Titel „1&1 x Rakuten x OpenRAN“ wieder einige der interessantesten Experten eingeladen, um mit uns zu diskutieren:
https://www.pressebox.de/events/5gmasters-11-x-rakuten-x-openran/19558
Zakia Sameen Noor
Sun Oct 17, 2021 12:10 AM
David Tse, Senior Director for Rakuten Viber APAC said, "Viber Lens is a unique feature that enables users to make conversations that are more creative, engaging, and vivid. We have included the most advanced AR capabilities to Viber Lens while sticking to our commitment of providing high-security standards for messages, videos, and pictures that are exchanged over the application. Apart from that, we are also looking forward to launching additional local lenses exclusive to our users in Bangladesh. We are pleased to bring these features to our Bangladeshi users and offer them more creative ways to express their thoughts and feelings."
https://www.thedailystar.net/tech-startup/news/...-bangladesh-2200166
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkS5PdsafAc
The renewed partnership will allow Rakuten to launch enterprise-focused private 5G and IoT services.
By Zeus Kerravala | September 22, 2021
https://www.zdnet.com/article/...-cx-plan-to-disrupt-mobile-services/
+3,000 U.S. Employees
+13 Office Locations 15 Distribution Facilities
#1 Ranked Affiliate Network
+$20B Annual GMV
+$1B Annual Revenue
+15 Acquisitions in U.S
https://ecfsapi.fcc.gov/file/1071495780212/...July%25209%25202021.pdf
Advertising & Data: Rakuten Advertising, Rakuten Intelligence (sold to Nielsen few days ago)
Contents: Rakuten Viki, KonMari
Logistic: Rakuten Super Logistics, first mile
Rakuten Mobile in U.S: Rakuten Mobile Americas has been established to provide telecommunications technology solutions and services based on the Rakuten Communications Platform (RCP) to the mobile telco industry across the Americas. RCP, developed by Rakuten Mobile, the world’s first end-to-end fully virtualized cloud-native mobile network, empowers telco operators, enterprises and governments to easily build, deploy and scale secure next-generation, cloud-based Open RAN mobile networks at high speed and low cost.
https://ecfsapi.fcc.gov/file/1071495780212/...July%25209%25202021.pdf
Moderation
Zeitpunkt: 20.10.21 12:40
Aktion: Löschung des Beitrages
Kommentar: Moderation auf Wunsch des Verfassers
Zeitpunkt: 20.10.21 12:40
Aktion: Löschung des Beitrages
Kommentar: Moderation auf Wunsch des Verfassers
AST Space Mobile
Altiostar (now 100%)
Robin
AST SpaceMobile chairman and CEO Abel Avellan outlined in a blog the company’s advances in working with Rakuten Group, Vodafone Group and American Tower to address internet coverage gaps, as it ramps efforts to deliver satellite-based mobile service to billions across India, Indonesia and Africa.
In a guest post on Rakuten’s website, the AST SpaceMobile executive noted it now had agreements or understandings with mobile operators covering about 1.5 billion subscribers.
https://www.mobileworldlive.com/asia/asia-news/...ress-with-operators
Rakuten Acquires Altiostar to Boost Open RAN Efforts
Dan Meyer | Editor-in-ChiefAugust 4, 2021 7:14 PM
Japan’s Rakuten Group scooped up U.S.-based open radio access (RAN) network equipment provider Altiostar for more than $1 billion. The move expands on an already established financial partnership between the two companies and bolsters Rakuten’s internal work toward creating an open RAN ecosystem.
Specific financial terms beyond the $1 billion-plus price tag were not released, but Rakuten was part of Altiostar’s $114 million Series C funding round that closed in 2019. Altiostar had raised more than $357 million in total funding prior to the Rakuten acquisition.
https://www.sdxcentral.com/articles/news/...open-ran-efforts/2021/08/
Cloud-native platform specialist Robin.io, a key technology supplier to alternative Japanese mobile operator Rakuten Mobile, has raised $38 million in a Series C round of funding that was led by Rakuten Capital. The round takes Robin.io’s total funding to $86 million.
The vendor’s networking-oriented Kubernetes platform is designed to run radio access network (RAN), core, edge and other cloud-native applications being deployed by network operators, and is being used by Rakuten Mobile for its Open RAN-based 5G network.
“Robin.io has proven to be an outstanding technology partner to Rakuten Mobile, which established the world’s first cloud-native 5G network running on the Robin Cloud Native Platform,” noted Oskar Mielczarek de la Miel, managing partner at Rakuten Capital.
https://www.telecomtv.com/content/cloud-native/...ist-robin-io-41726/
Acorns
BlueVine
WePay (sold a longer time ago)
Upstart (shares sold in June/July 2021 with big gains)
Acorns is a micro-investing platform and robo-advisor that launched in August of 2014. It’s a legitimate company backed by investors like PayPal, NBCUniversal, and Rakuten. With more than 4.5 million users, Acorns is a trusted tool for people with little-to-no experience investing.
https://financebuzz.com/acorns-review
Leading Private Investors in BlueVine
BlueVine has undergone a lot of investment rounds — 13 to be exact. Their most recent, Series F, raised $102.5m towards the end of 2019, with ION Crossover Partners being the lead investor. In total, they have raised a huge $692.5m from all the funding rounds.
Lightspeed
83NORTH
Menlo
Citi
Silicon Valley Bank
Rakuten
Nationwide
M2
ION Crossover Partners
https://businessloancompanies.com/bluevine/
Upstart Leads List Of Top IPOs Backed By Private Equity Or Venture Capital
By Jacky On Sep 4, 2021
https://whatsnew2day.com/...ked-by-private-equity-or-venture-capital/
Amin said, “We have found a counterpart in 1&1. The mindset that they come with is amazing and I think we will do something even better than we have done in Japan. Amin said 1&1 would be able to build on Rakuten’s own practices in “how we gather data, automate Day 0, Day1 and implement intelligence in the fabric of the network.
“Believe me, 1&1 will build a network in Germany that I think will be superior architecturally to what exists in the market today, bringing a technology stack that is more advanced than what he had at Rakuten. We are bringing a new market place process in which we want to consolidate all of the applications that are needed to engineer, operate and maintain this network.”
“We are three and a half years into building the mobile network in Japan. It was not easy, it was not simple, every day was lessons learned. And we said if we ever get an opportunity to package what we have learned, we want to do something better than we have done in Japan, to drive a new vision of cloud and the network as cloud. Open RAN is one pillar of that but it’s just one element of what we want to do.”
Amin said that just as important as Open RAN technology – which he said now uncontestably works – is Rakuten’s work in building a single, robust, scaleable data platform that sits at the heart of automation and operational flexibility.
“Having one data platform eliminates all the vendor EMS. For four years I have been asking myself what we can do differently if we get a chance somewhere else. I think Symphony has a big aspiration on changing the way we build an active, agile, affordable and modern networks. The day will come when upgrading this network will no longer require massive hardware upgrades, we should be able to drive agility through software. The partnership we have [with 1&1] is very important for Europe but also for the world as well.”
https://the-mobile-network.com/2021/10/...-to-out-do-partner-rakuten/