Rakuten Group has acquired Altiostar Networks at a total valuation of US$1 billion.
Altiostar’s 4G and 5G open virtual Radio Access Network (Open vRAN) solutions are being used by Rakuten Mobile in its new 5G network in Japan. Altiostar’s suite of Open vRAN network functions are running on the Rakuten Communications Platform (RCP), which is a fully virtualized, cloud-native telco platform.
Altiostar Networks CEO, Ashraf Dahod commented: “Open RAN architecture and virtualization are key to building software-centric networks that can scale and adapt to meet an explosion of devices and applications driving service velocity and profits. Becoming a Rakuten Group company will allow us to build on our foundation and accelerate our technology development to help operators to innovate, explore new business models and bring affordable broadband to the masses through web-scale mobile networks.”
“We’re entering a new era where mobile network operators can choose how to build and deploy a network by working with the world’s most innovative software companies to create open and interoperable solutions,” commented Rakuten Group CEO, Mickey Mikitani. “We’re delighted to welcome the Altiostar team to the Rakuten family as we share a common passion for empowering mobile networks through disruptive innovation, offering mobile operators around the world secure, cost-effective and highly agile technology.”
After the successful launch of Rakuten Mobile’s 4G network in April 2020, Altiostar and Rakuten launched the world’s first container-based, cloud-native 5G radio access network (RAN) in September 2020. Altiostar is also growing its global operations with the expansion of its Indian R&D center and UK-based open vRAN engineering lab, as well as the opening of regional hubs close to its customers.
In addition to Rakuten Mobile, Altiostar has been selected by multiple Mobile Network Operators among which Airtel in India, Dish in the United States and Telefonica in Europe and Latam. Altiostar has key partner relationships in place with RCP, Cisco, VMware, Dell, Fujitsu, IBM/Red Hat, Intel, NEC, Qualcomm, Sterlite, Tech Mahindra, Facebook Connectivity and public cloud providers. Altiostar is a member of the O-RAN ALLIANCE, the Telecom Infra Project (TIP), and a board member of the Open RAN Policy Coalition.
Rakuten tests O-RAN 5G Massive MIMO with Altiostar and NEC
Altiostar confirmed that its O-RAN Alliance-compliant multi-vendor massive-multi-input, multi-output (mMIMO) 5G solution is in now in testing with with NEC Corporation and Rakuten Mobile. Specifically, Altiostar is integrating the O-RAN distributed unit (O-DU) functionality of its virtual radio access network (vRAN) software with NEC’s O-RAN Radio Unit (O-RU) using fully compliant control, user, synchronization and management (C/U/S/M) plane protocols…
Altiostar raises $114 million for its open vRAN
Altiostar, a start-up based in Tewksbury, Mass., closed a $114 million Series C round of financing for its open virtualized RAN (open vRAN) technology. Rakuten, which is preparing to launch a greenfield mobile network in Japan later this year, is coming on board as an investor. Rakuten is deploying the Altiostar solution in their mobile network and the companies are collaborating on the development of 5G solutions. In early 2018, Qualcomm…
Rakuten invests in Altiostar for virtual RAN
Rakuten, the Japanese e-commerce and fintech company and soon to be the operator of Japan’s newest mobile network, will make a strategic investment in Altiostar Networks, a start-up based in Tewksbury, Mass. The investment is subject to approval by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. Altiostar provides a 5G-ready virtualized RAN software solution that supports open interfaces and disaggregates the hardware from the software…
