Rakuten Mobile and STC signed a memorandum of understanding, with the aim to collaborate and improve mobile technologies through the use of open technology and wireless infrastructure.
In a statement, the operators said they will explore opportunities in various technology fields such as: fully autonomous digital platform serving telecommunication cloud network, OpenRAN deployment options for greenfield and brownfield use-cases, operating models and business value realisation.
Nasser Al Nasser, STC CEO, said: “This MoU aims to expand our global partnerships and help diversify our strategic growth. We are confident this MoU will bring tangible results in terms of developing a new advance technology strategy and accelerating the early deployment of novel and sophisticated services.
“This is a vital role for us, as we continue with our Digital Transformation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, serving the 2030 vision.”
Mickey Mikitani, Rakuten Mobile CEO added: “We believe that our open architecture and advanced OpenRAN technologies will help define a new generation of operators who are ideally positioned to place advanced customer experience and differentiated profitable services at the centre of their offering.”
Rakuten Mobile launched operations in April this year becoming the fourth mobile operator in Japan. Uniquely the operator has a network that is completely virtualised, stating this approach to building networks brings cost and operational efficiencies, and enables new services and additional revenue streams for the operator.
