Rakuten Mobile’s fully virtualized greenfield network running on cloud native and open radio access network (RAN) technology is live. The commercial launch, which was achieved two years after the Japanese government allocated spectrum to the ecommerce juggernaut, marks the world’s first network-wide deployment of its kind.

It’s a network architecture that costs 40% less than traditional telecommunication infrastructure and the savings on opex are even better, according to CTO Tareq Amin. The operator is passing some of those savings on to customers in the form of a $28 monthly subscription for unlimited data, voice, and messaging services.

Rakuten Mobile’s successful launch also serves as a clarion call for the wireless industry, proving that there are indeed new and more efficient ways to assemble networks. Virtualization, open RAN, and cloud-native architectures have been demonstrably beneficial for many years, but this is the first time an entire network has been designed from the ground up riding exclusively on those technologies.

Industry observers and competitors that were skeptical of the company’s approach have been largely silenced. However, Rakuten Mobile isn’t completely free from legacy equipment vendors and traditional technology. It is still using technology and hardware from industry stalwarts.

Equipment, software, and services from Airspan, Altiostar, Cisco, Intel, Mavenir, NEC, Nokia, Red Hat, and Qualcomm all play a role in Rakuten Mobile’s network. The company also recently announced a 20% equity investment in AST & Science, a global satellite telecommunications startup, which Rakuten intends to use for coverage in less populated areas of Japan.

The company was on pace to have 4,400 base stations deployed throughout Japan by the end of March and expects to have at least 8,600 base stations installed within the next year.

Rakuten Mobile’s network is currently providing 4G LTE service, using antennas from Nokia and Altiostar, which the company owns a majority share in, and it plans to activate 5G service in June. The operator is working with NEC to build and manufacture a 5G massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna for its 5G network in the next couple months.

The commercial launch, which follows a trial that got underway in October 2019, is six months behind schedule. The company entered the mobile space in 2014 as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) and gained regulatory approval to become Japan’s fourth nationwide carrier in April 2018.