Rakuten Mobile is expanding its open RAN network footprint with 1Finity radios, according to a report by RCR Wireless, extending a radio procurement strategy that has anchored Japan's fourth-largest mobile operator since its national launch.

The deployment adds to a network Rakuten Mobile has built end to end on O-RAN principles, with virtualized radio access network equipment and open interfaces between radios and baseband units rather than proprietary single-vendor stacks. The 1Finity radio line fits that model: fronthaul to O-RAN specifications, multi-vendor interoperability by design.

What does this change for the Japanese market?

For Rakuten Mobile, the expansion is incremental rather than structural. The operator already runs one of the largest fully virtualized, open RAN mobile networks in commercial service. Adding radio capacity from the 1Finity portfolio supports coverage growth and densification within an architecture that has been in place for years.

For the wider O-RAN movement, another commercial deployment by its most prominent reference customer carries weight. Rakuten Mobile's network has served as proof that open interfaces can operate at national scale, and every extension of that footprint strengthens the argument for operators in other markets weighing multi-vendor RAN procurement.

Commercial reality versus open RAN marketing

Vendor messaging around open RAN routinely emphasizes flexibility, cost reduction and innovation speed. Rakuten Mobile's own track record is more nuanced. The operator's buildout demonstrated the technical viability of the model while its parent company absorbed years of heavy network losses, a reminder that open architectures do not by themselves resolve the economics of entering a saturated market as a challenger.

The 1Finity radio deployment should therefore be read as continued execution of an established strategy, not a new direction. It deepens a supply chain Rakuten has cultivated through its subsidiary Rakuten Symphony, which sells the same architecture stack to operators outside Japan.

Why the radio layer matters

Radios remain the most physically visible and cost-sensitive layer of any RAN. Expanding the pool of O-RAN-compliant radio units that interoperate cleanly with Rakuten's cloud-native baseband infrastructure is the practical test of open RAN's core promise: that operators can mix and match suppliers without integration penalties.

The report does not specify site counts, spectrum bands or deployment timelines for the new radios. Those details will determine whether the expansion represents routine capacity top-up or a meaningful widening of the operator's radio vendor base.

Rakuten Mobile's network buildout and its Symphony export business remain the two channels through which its O-RAN choices shape operator planning well beyond Japan.