Barcelona : Rakuten Symphony, a Japanese open RAN technology provider that is part of Rakuten Mobile, plans to invest $10 million in India this year to strengthen AI capabilities and conduct 6G research, a senior company official said. said.
The initiative will be based at the company’s Bengaluru Research and Development Center, its second largest technology hub outside Japan.
“This year and next, we will initially focus on AI and expand it. This year, we plan to invest approximately $10 million in research and development in research and development in 6G,” said Rakuten Mobile. said Sharad Srivastava, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Chief Technology Officer and President of Rakuten Symphony. mint On the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Rakuten Mobile is the mobile phone operator division of Rakuten Group, and Rakuten Symphony is its communication platform solutions subsidiary.
Describing India as an important global research and development hub, Sriwasthava said Rakuten Symphony has approximately 3,000 employees working in diverse research, development and operational roles.
Rakuten’s India division has approximately 4,000 employees and supports the group’s operations, including e-commerce and payment services. He added that the company is hiring heads of key departments in India and transferring personnel to India to strengthen its local operations.
The Global Innovation Lab will be established in 2022-23 in addition to the existing lab for Radio Access Networks (RAN). The company’s research and development hubs, located between three centers in Bangalore, Indore and Pune, focus on radio access networks, core networks and performance testing.
Open RAN technology eliminates dependence on a single vendor by allowing carriers to source hardware and software from a variety of suppliers.
Rakuten has also started discussions with three major Indian telecom operators – Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea – to introduce small cells based on open RAN technology, Sriwasthava said. .
“We have started early discussions with all three Indian carriers. Once 5G rollout is complete in the coming months, we will be looking at Open RAN. They intend to start with small cells first, but , trials will begin for macro (cells) by the end of the year,” he said.
Although the company had deployed around 5,000 femtocells in Bharti Airtel’s 4G network by 2021, it has not made much progress in entering the Indian market since then.
Srivasthava also said that Rakuten Group was an early adopter of AI and developed AI algorithms for Japan’s e-commerce business. Rakuten, which partnered with OpenAI last year, will also partner with a technology company backed by Sam Altman to develop AI solutions for mobile networks, including customer service, network optimization, and predictive maintenance for communications networks.
The reporter was in Barcelona to cover the Mobile World Congress at the invitation of Xiaomi.
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Published: March 8, 2024, 4:25 PM IST
