Rakuten Mobile partners with Fujitsu's 1Finity to deploy 44R21 Open RAN radios in Japan

Type: Partnership · Technology: Telecom · Country: Japan · Announced: 2026-07-15

Rakuten Mobile signed a partnership with Fujitsu’s 1Finity to procure 44R21 O‑RAN‑compliant radios for its 5G Sub‑6 (3.7 GHz) network in Japan. The compact, lightweight 44R21 radios are designed to reduce installation space and lower lease costs, enabling Rakuten to expand its 5G coverage efficiently. The deployment supports Rakuten’s Open RAN rollout, which recently pushed the subscriber base past 10 million users. Fujitsu’s 1Finity joins other radio partners such as Samsung Networks and NEC, while software partners include Cisco, Airspan Networks and Tech Mahindra, illustrating a broad ecosystem collaboration. The agreement, announced in July 2026, underscores Rakuten’s goal of building a sustainable, cloud‑native 5G architecture and highlights 1Finity’s focus on high‑performance, energy‑efficient radio units.

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