Rakuten Mobile 4G Network: Population Coverage Ratio Reaches 96%

Tokyo, February 4, 2022 - Rakuten Mobile, Inc. announced today that the population coverage ratio for its 4G network has reached 96%^*1. Relative to the end of March 2026 (FY2025) target for “96% 4G population coverage” outlined in the fourth generation mobile communications system (4G) special base station deployment plan (1.7 GHz) approved in April 2018 by the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), the mobile network operator has achieved this target approximately four years ahead of schedule.

The efficiency of the base station rollout has been dramatically enhanced by the network architecture of Rakuten Mobile’s world-first fully virtualized, cloud-native mobile network^*2. This has allowed the operator to deploy simple and compact base stations and leverage technologies such as AI to find sites for base stations and drones to carry out base station site and completion inspections.

Building from the ground up, Rakuten Mobile has expanded its network from the 23 wards of Tokyo, Osaka City and Nagoya City at the time of launch to nationwide coverage and continues to improve the quality of its service. In addition to building strong partnerships with the construction companies working on the base station buildout, the entire Rakuten Group has worked as one to secure sites for base stations, contributing to the rapid expansion of the network area.

In the Rakuten network area, customers can enjoy unlimited high-speed data^*3. Going forward, Rakuten Mobile will continue to expand network coverage and increase base station density to further improve the quality of its service.

*1 Night-time population coverage by outdoor base stations. The population coverage ratio is calculated based on the number of the approx. 500m zones used in the national census which have area coverage of more than 50%. Please check the coverage map for current coverage. In certain limited areas, as measures are still underway to close public service radio stations, only 5 MHz of bandwidth are available for the service. Once these closures are completed, 20 MHz of bandwidth will become available for service in these areas.
*2 For a large scale commercial mobile network (as of October 1, 2019). Research: Stella Associa
*3 Unlimited high-speed data is available for a monthly fee of 2,980 yen (3,278 yen including tax). Unlimited high-speed data when connected to Rakuten base stations. To provide a fair service, restrictions on transmission speed may be implemented. Please check the coverage areas. Unlimited data at a maximum speed of 1Mbps after using the allocated 5GB for domestic roaming partner area. At a maximum speed of 1Mbps, data intensive tasks, such as video streaming and downloading apps may take more time than usual. Transmission speed is best effort (the maximum speed of the standard). Actual transmission speeds may vary depending on the network environment.