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• SoftBank to invest up to US$40 billion in OpenAI
  in Business Telecommunications
  By Josh Martinez

  Japanese telecoms and tech investment giant SoftBank Group has entered into a definitive agreement with US artificial intelligence market leader OpenAI to invest up to US$40 billion in the company.

  Of the total investment, SoftBank to inject up to US$30 billion of its own capital and syndicate out US$10 billion to co-investors.

  The investment is made on the basis of valuing OpenAI at US$260 billion - giving SoftBank and co-investors a potential stake of up to 15.38%

  Under the agreement, SoftBank will pay an initial instalment of US$10 billion in April 2025 and between US$10-30 billion by the end of 2025.

  SoftBank outlined its rationale for its AI investment saying the "information revolution" has now entered a new phase led by AI.

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  "In this context, SoftBank Group has declared its mission to realise Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI) for the advancement of humanity," SoftBank says..

  "Recognising OpenAI as the partner closest to achieving Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), a key milestone on the path to ASI, and its mission of ensuring AGI benefits all of humanity, SoftBank Group has positioned OpenAI as its most important partner and invested US$2.2 billion in total since September 2024."

  According to SoftBank, the advancement of OpenAI’s AI models is key to achieving AGI and ASI, and massive computing power is essential.

  "To that end, SoftBank Group has announced the “Stargate Project” together with OpenAI on January 21, 2025, to build dedicated AI infrastructure for OpenAI in the United States," SoftBank says.

  "In alignment with this initiative, and to both further support OpenAI’s growth and capture the benefits of that growth, SBG has decided to make follow-on investments in OpenAI."
• NTT, DOCOMO, NEC demo distributed MIMO for 6G in cars and trains
  in Business Telecommunications
  By Josh Martinez

  Japanese telecoms and tech giants NTT, DOCOMO, and NEC have demonstrated a distributed MIMO technology system that maintains communication quality in the mmWave 40 GHz band when a large number of antennas are distributed among multiple locations.

  Autonomous driving technologies will require increasingly faster and larger-capacity wireless communications. To this end, efforts are under way to make effective use of the millimetre wave band, and even higher frequency bands for mobile communications.

  In high-speed mobile environments, rapid changes in communication conditions occur due to both the movement of the vehicle itself and surrounding high-speed vehicles.

  To boost millimetre-wave transmissions, high-frequency distributed MIMO systems can be deployed in which a single base station uses a large number of antennas distributed among various locations for transmission to each mobile terminal.

  For high-frequency distributed MIMO transmission, it is necessary to detect the optimal combination of distributed antennas and beams in response to changes in the radio communication environment for each mobile terminal.

  NTT and DOCOMO have developed a beam-search technology that can rapidly detect the optimum combination of distributed antennas and beams using the same beam identification signal.

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  Billed as a successful demonstration of future high frequency 6G communications in cars and trains, the demonstration was conducted in a simulated high-speed mobile environment, driving a mobile-terminal vehicle at 100 km/h, with three distributed antennas at 150m intervals installed on one side of the road.

  The technology selects the most appropriate antennas and beams at high speed and uses frequency and timing-compensation technology to prevent significant changes in reception frequency and timing on the mobile-terminal side, even if the terminals are moving at high speed or are shielded by other vehicles moving at high speed.

  According to the three partner companies, the demonstration verified the potential of mmWave distributed MIMO to achieve stable, high-capacity wireless communications in high-speed moving environments, such as automobiles and trains, for purposes such as providing large-volume content to many passengers and collecting massive sensing data for automated driving.

  "Throughput drop during antenna switching was suppressed to maintain throughput at about 100Mbps," the partner companies said.

  "The result was stable high-capacity communication using millimetre waves even during high-speed travel."

  The three companies say they will proceed with verifications of actual services on roads and railways, aiming to eventually implement high-frequency distributed MIMO in high-speed mobile environments.
• E2A Consortium to connect Japan, Korea, Taiwan to US with submarine cable
  in Business Telecommunications
  By Josh Martinez

  A consortium comprising Chunghwa Telecom (CHT), SK Broadband (SKB), SoftBank, and Verizon - the E2A Consortium - have announced a project to build a new transpacific submarine cable system, E2A, that will connect Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and the US.

  The consortium selected Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) to build a 12,500 km transpacific fibre optic network designed to significantly enhance digital connectivity between Asia and North America.

  Japanese telecoms giant SoftBank says there has been a massive surge in demand driven by cloud computing, data processing and next-generation mobile networks, the need for ultra-high-capacity, low-latency infrastructure.

  "The E2A represents a major step forward in global communications, delivering unprecedented performance, scalability, and reliability, while integrating sustainability-driven design principles," Softbank says.

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  The transpacific E2A submarine cable system will link major digital hubs in Asia and North America, with landings in Maruyama (Chiba, Japan), Toucheng (Taiwan), Busan (South Korea) and Morro Bay (California, USA).

  The E2A cable will feature 12 fibre pairs (FP) delivering capacity of more than 192 Tbps, 18kV power feeding technology, Open Cable System architecture, and has an expected Ready for Service (RFS) date in the second half of 2028.

  “We're very pleased to have initiated the project for a new submarine cable connecting East Asia and the United States," said Teruyuki Oya, Vice President, Head of the Mobile & Network Division, Technology Unit, at SoftBank Corp.

  "As we enter an era where AI is being fully implemented, the importance of international submarine cables connecting not only Japan and the United States but also major parts of Asia as arteries of information is increasing.

  "SoftBank will advance the development of global, multifaceted, and stable platforms by building infrastructure for the AI era.”
• Rimini Street honoured with Multiple Consecutive 'Great Place to Work' certifications and 'leadership Award' Across Asia, Europe and North America
  in Enterprise Staff
  By Rimini Street

  Rimini Street employees in Israel, Japan, Korea, Singapore, UK and USA celebrate the company’s commitment to an extraordinary workplace culture of fairness and togetherness

  COMPANY NEWS: Rimini Street, a global provider of end-to-end enterprise software support and innovation solutions, and the leading third-party support provider for Oracle, SAP and VMware software, today announced it has been honoured with multiple consecutive Great Place to Work® certifications in Israel, Japan, Singapore, UK and USA, and Best Workplaces™ Korea’s Most Respected CEO award for Seth Ravin, CEO of Rimini Street.

  Great Place to Work® is the global authority on workplace culture, employee experience, and leadership behaviours proven to deliver market-leading revenue, employee retention, and increased innovation. Best Workplaces™ awards are granted upon review of the detailed Culture Brief™ benchmarked against industry and regional peers.

  “A colourful melting pot of diverse cultures but sharing a single passion for success, we are proud of our global workforce and passionate leaders starting from our CEO on down, who are committed to making Rimini Street a great place to work for all,” said Brian Almas, senior vice president of global human resources at Rimini Street.

  Rimini Street Employees Feel They are Treated Fairly Regardless of Age, Gender or Race
  The anonymous surveying of Rimini Street employees during the certifications revealed:

  • People here are treated fairly regardless of their age (98%, Japan, 96%, Israel)
  • People are treated fairly regardless of their gender (100%, Singapore, 98%, Japan, 96%, Israel)
  • People here are treated fairly regardless of their race (96%, Israel and Japan)

  Rimini Street Employees Say They Feel Welcome, Heard, and Good About Community Contributions
  Additional highlights of the survey include:

  • When you join the company, you are made to feel welcome (100%, Singapore and UK, 96% Israel, and Japan, 94%, USA)
  • My manager/supervisor and I have open and honest conversations about work (95%, UK)
  • I feel good about the ways we contribute to the community (92%, USA)
  • I am able to take time off from work when I think it’s necessary (91%, USA)

  “Our open-door policy empowers our people to speak up and be actively engaged in shaping our path forward. Whether we are in-person, online or remote, we move together as one on Rimini Street,” said Almas.

  We are Hiring!
  Grow your career at a company that puts its people first and invests in the community. Visit Rimini Street’s career page at: https://www.riministreet.com/company/careers/

  About Rimini Street, Inc.
  Rimini Street, Inc. (Nasdaq: RMNI), a Russell 2000® Company, is a global provider of end-to-end enterprise software support and innovation solutions and the leading third-party support provider for Oracle, SAP and VMware software. The Company offers a comprehensive portfolio of unified solutions to run, manage, support, customize, configure, connect, protect, monitor, and optimize enterprise application, database, and technology software. The Company has signed thousands of contracts with Fortune Global 100, Fortune 500, midmarket, public sector and government organizations who selected Rimini Street as their trusted, proven mission-critical enterprise software solutions provider and achieved better operational outcomes, realized billions of US dollars in savings and funded AI and other innovation investments.
  To learn more, please visit www.riministreet.com and connect with Rimini Street on X, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
• Telkom Kenya signs MoU with Rakuten and Airspan for Open RAN trials
  in Business Telecommunications
  By Josh Martinez

  Telkom Kenya has partnered with Japan-based technology services provider Rakuten Symphony and US-based Open RAN developer Airspan Networks, to develop and test Open RAN technology in the East African nation.

  The Japanese and United States governments have agreed to fund the project through a technology grant of US$4.4 million that will be administered by Rakuten Symphony and Airspan Networks.

  Under the agreement, the project partners will set up a testing facility and conduct field and network tests to advance 4G/5G, Open RAN, and AI innovation on the African continent.

  The three companies will also conduct field trials to ensure optimal performance and seamless integration into Telkom’s network infrastructure.

  The partners say that a long-term objective of the project is knowledge transfer and training of local developers and engineers.

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  “Telkom is pleased to collaborate in this consortium of cutting-edge technology leaders in this field of open architecture telecommunications network and reap the benefits of modern, and ultimately, inevitable technological advances such as AI," Telkom’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr Mugo Kibati says.

  "This is a significant milestone in positioning Kenya and Africa as a research, development, manufacturing, and testing hub of leading cutting-edge technology.”

  Telkom says it is also investing in talent up-skilling, positively impacting its R&D and Innovation, which will in turn enhance its overall proposition to its customers.

  “Unlike other operators in the region that purchase RAN technology, Telkom is intent on being involved in the entire process; the development, testing, and consequent deployment of the technology in an open environment," Telkom's Kibati says.

  "In addition, our teams will benefit greatly from knowledge transfer with global market leaders.”

  President and CEO of Airspan, Glenn Laxdal says Telkom’s collaboration with the consortium to explore the latest telecommunication advancements will place Kenya in a position of technological leadership within the African region.

  "Airspan is proud to support this vision with advanced 4G/5G solutions, alongside Rakuten Symphony, whose expertise as the one of world’s largest commercial Open RAN vendors ensures impactful results,” Laxdal said.