Rakuten Faces Surge in 4G and 5G Costs as KDDI Ends Roaming
Rakuten Group has poured more than $11B into Rakuten Mobile since late 2018, overshooting its original basestation budget, yet lacks enough sites to deliver a nationwide mobile experience. It plans to spend an extra 200B yen this year on basestations across multiple spectrum bands, and is insourcing site negotiations to speed deployment. Second-quarter operating loss shrank to JPY32.3B as sales rose.