Rakuten backs S.Korea’s new mobile carrier Stage X

South Korea’s fledgling mobile carrier Stage X Co. has teamed up with relatively new Japanese mobile company Rakuten Group to crack Korea’s mobile telecom market well guarded by the top three – SK Telecom Co., KT Corp. and LG Uplus Corp.

Stage X announced on Thursday that it signed a memorandum of understanding with Rakuten Mobile Inc. and Rakuten Symphony Inc. to collaborate with mobile network technology and service development.

Stage X is Korea’s fourth mobile carrier approved by Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT in February to operate and provide 5G services in the 28 gigahertz (GHz) spectrum across the nation.

It is Korea’s first newcomer in 22 years in the country’s telecom market tightly controlled by three majors SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus.

It is a consortium backed by its parent Stage Five, a Korean mobile virtual network operator, Shinhan Securities Co. and other information technology companies. Stage Five was recently split off from Kakao Corp. as an independent company.

As Stage X got the nod for its operation from the ICT ministry on the condition that it build 6,000 base stations nationwide in three years, it plans to start offering nationwide mobile network services in the first half of next year.

It will launch both business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-customer (B2C) services. But it will offer its services first to companies and organizations, including universities, airports and hospitals before branching out.

With the cooperation with Rakuten Mobile and Rakuten Symphony, Korea’s fourth mobile carrier hopes to expedite its venture into the Korean mobile network market with high-speed, ultra-low latency and extensively connected mobile services.

Rakuten Mobile, which entered the Japanese telecom market in 2020, will share its expertise with Stage X on mobile network services, while its cloud-based mobile service-providing subsidiary Rakuten Symphony will share its solutions.

The three parties agreed to cooperate beyond 5G services later to include partnerships in mid-band frequency and the development of a 6G-based national network in the long term.

But some industry observers question whether the Rakuten-Stage X collaboration can create synergy, citing the Japanese partner’s loss-making mobile business.

The Japanese government also chose Rakuten as a new mobile carrier four years ago to stimulate competition in the Japanese telecom market controlled by its only top big three.  

But Rakuten Mobile has suffered losses in 5G services in the 28 GHz spectrum since the first quarter of 2020.

Write to Ji-Eun Jeong at jeong@hankyung.com


Sookyung Seo edited this article.