Cisco and Nokia are providing the software and hardware behind Rakuten’s new mobile network, with Nokia’s CTO questioning whether the future of web-scales is to become a carrier.
Japanese online marketplace Rakuten has made the surprise announcement that it will be launching its own mobile network in just eight months, thanks to hardware and software from tech giants Cisco and Nokia.
The Rakuten Mobile Network, which will launch in October, will be the first fully virtualised, cloud-based mobile network in the world.
Speaking with ZDNet at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2019 in Barcelona, Cisco global director of Mobility and 5G Bob Everson said the rollout will utilise his company’s virtualisation architecture.
“They have a really nice approach,” he said.
“It’s a greenfield build, it’s brand new, so they have the benefit of being able to decide how they want to do this from scratch, and so a very innovative approach where it’s all a completely virtualised, cloud-based network.”
Cisco, which also announced its Unified Domain Center (UDC) at MWC as “the bridge between DNA and mobile”, is lending its routing and switching hardware, software, and services across its cloud, IT, and service provider portfolios to the Rakuten build-out.
The networking giant is also providing its experts from engineering, security, operations, and multi-vendor systems integration.
Once deployed, the network will include a fully virtualised network with multi-access edge computing; software-defined networking; centralised and regional datacentre capabilities; and full service and infrastructure automation.
Rakuten Mobile Network CTO Tareq Amin said his company’s network will be “software powered and automated from top to bottom”.
