Rakuten Symphony to Conduct Open RAN Trials in Seven Countries with Japanese Government Support
Rakuten Symphony has secured a grant of 8 billion Japanese yen (approximately $56.52 million) from Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to conduct a large-scale trial of open RAN and RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) technologies. This trial will be implemented across seven countries in the global south, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, India, Kuwait, Bolivia, and Paraguay. The project involves deploying virtualized open RAN networks, each consisting of around 100 base stations. The initiative aims to tackle various telecommunications infrastructure challenges in these regions, such as network access disparities, development delays in complex geographical areas, high recovery costs from natural disasters, aging infrastructure, and the substantial investments needed for 5G migration. Rakuten Symphony, in collaboration with Rakuten Mobile, will test and validate the effectiveness of these technologies in commercial settings. 
