Germany’s 1&1 has signed a long-term partnership agreement with Rakuten Group to build its mobile network. The work to build the network will start in the next quarter, 1&1 will build a fully virtualized mobile network based on OpenRAN technology. Under the agreement, Rakuten will be responsible for building the active network equipment. It will also oversee the performance of the mobile network and provide software to automate network management.
1&1 will have access to the Rakuten Communications Platform (RCP) stack of access, core, cloud and operations solutions and to its partner network. The core network will run on four data centres. Other, decentralized data centres in Germany will be connected to the core network. The data centres will in turn be connected to antenna locations over fibre-optic. 1&1 Versatel supports the new network by providing data centres and fibre-optic lines.
1&1 is building the network as part of a strategy to become the fourth network operator in Germany alongside Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone and Telefonica Germany. The company acquired 5G spectrum in the 2GHz and 2.6GHz bands in 2019 and already has a MVNO agreement in place with Telefonica. The latter is already working with Rakuten on open RAN deployments.
