Rakuten Mobile Named Global Winner and Global Leader in Key Metrics in Opensignal Global Awards 2024

- Opensignal February 2024 Global Report names Rakuten Mobile the Global Winner in Games Experience and Voice App Experience.
- Rakuten Mobile named a Global Leader in Upload Speed Experience.

Tokyo, February 27, 2024 – Rakuten Mobile subscribers are enjoying one of the world’s best mobile networks, according to key performance measures reported by global analytics company Opensignal.

“Rakuten Mobile’s unique cloud-native open RAN architecture was designed to deliver the best user experience with the highest operational efficiency, and these high marks from Opensignal are a testament to that,” said Sharad Sriwastawa, Co-CEO, Rakuten Mobile. “We are excited to be named one of the world’s best mobile networks and we remain committed to bringing even greater advancements and experiences to our subscribers in Japan.”

Opensignal’s Global Report February 2024^*1 identifies Rakuten Mobile as the Global Winner in key categories including Games Experience and Voice App Experience. Rakuten Mobile is named a Global Leader for Upload Speed Experience ranking in the top 3 for this category. Rakuten Mobile is also recognised in this report for globally high performing scores, including Video Experience (ranking in the top 9 in this category), 4G/5G Availability (ranking in the top 8 in this), and Consistent Quality (ranking in the top 11 in this category).

These high scores demonstrate continued improvements and progress for Rakuten Mobile and its innovative network architecture, which launched less than four years ago. Rakuten Mobile remains committed to improving and advancing its network at scale to its more than six million customers across Japan.

Opensignal’s Games Experience category measures how mobile users experience real-time multiplayer mobile gaming on an operator’s network. Rakuten Mobile ranked highest among all global mobile operators, scoring 82.6 on a scale of 0-100, which analyzes how the gaming experience is affected by mobile network conditions including latency, packet loss and jitter. In Opensignal’s Global Awards 2022, Rakuten Mobile was ranked as a Global High Performer in the Games Experience category^*2.

Rakuten Mobile achieved the highest marks among all global mobile operators in the Voice App Experience category with an 82.5 on a scale of 0-100. Opensignal's Voice App Experience measures the quality of experience for over-the-top (OTT) voice services. Rakuten Mobile was ranked as a Global High Performer in the Voice App Experience category for the Opensignal Global Awards 2022.

Rakuten Mobile ranked  globally for Upload Speed Experience in the Opensignal Global Awards 2024. With blazing Upload Speeds measured at 19.1 Mbps. Rakuten Mobile was ranked as a Global High Performer in the Upload Speed category for the Opensignal Global Awards 2022.

Rakuten Mobile scored high marks in other categories in the Opensignal Global Awards 2024. For Time on 4G/5G, Rakuten Mobile ranked in the top 8 for this category with a 98.47% time its subscribers spend connected to the network. Rakuten Mobile was named a Global Leader in the 4G Availability category in the Opensignal Global Awards 2022.

For Video Experience, Rakuten Mobile ranked in the top 9 for this category. The metric quantifies the quality of video streamed to mobile devices by measuring real-world video streams over an operator’s network.

Rakuten Mobile also ranked in the top 11 in its Consistent Quality category. This metric measures how often a user’s experience is sufficient to experience a common application for live streaming or multiplayer live gaming.

In addition, Rakuten Mobile was named as one of the Regional Winners for the Video Experience category in the East Asia & Pacific region. For the Global Awards 2024, Opensignal is taking a deep dive into the regions in Group I countries for the first time to identify Regional Winners and Regional Leaders for Video Experience and Download Speed Experience category.

With independent third-party expert data from Opensignal and other industry organizations, alongside numerous industry awards, such as GSMA’s most prestigious annual GLOMO Awards three years running^*3 granted to Rakuten Mobile and Rakuten Symphony in both 4G and 5G technology, Rakuten Mobile is performing as one of the most acclaimed networks in the world today.

Rakuten Mobile will continue to advance cloud-native network architecture and Open RAN technologies while improving network quality to provide mobile customers in Japan with best-in-class mobile services.

Notes
*1 Details of the Opensignal Global Reports, published in Februrary 2024, can be found here: https://www.opensignal.com/reports/2024/02/global-mobile-network-experience-awards
*2 Details of the Opensignal Global Reports, published in February 2022, can be found here: https://www.opensignal.com/reports/2022/02/global-state-of-the-mobile-network-experience-awards 
*3 Rakuten Mobile and Rakuten Symphony awarded GSMA Global Mobile Awards (GLOMO) in 2021, 2022 and 2023.

*The information in this press release is based on Opensignal data. Further information on Opensignal methodology can be found on the Opensignal website here https://www.opensignal.com/methodology-overview
* Source: Opensignal Awards — Global Mobile Network Experience Awards 2024 — Group 1[February 2024], based on independent analysis of mobile measurements recorded during the period [Jul 01 —Dec 27]. © 2024 Opensignal Inc.
* Product names and service names published in this press release are generally trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Trademarks such as TM and ® may be omitted when trademarks are listed in this press release.