The telecom industry is at an inflection point. As operators navigate shrinking margins, increasing complexity and rising customer expectations, success is no longer rooted in marginal gains but in fundamentally rethinking how networks are built and operated. The pace is intense, the competition fierce and AI has become the defining edge.
Rakuten Symphony has steadily expanded its presence in this dynamic landscape. Our approach combines advanced technology platforms with a sharp and consistent global marketing narrative, contributing to the ongoing conversations shaping telecom’s future. With Intelligent Growth as our playbook and AI as our accelerator, we are aligning with where the industry is heading, not where it has been.
At MWC 2025 in Barcelona, our presence was highly visible. Our showcase blended precise messaging with live product demonstrations, hands-on platform displays, executive panels and targeted customer discussions. This multi-layered approach allowed us to engage a diverse audience, from technology leaders and analysts to operator executives, while reinforcing the practical relevance of Intelligent Growth as a live, executable strategy.
Through these sessions, we advanced a clear message. Transformation requires rethinking how networks are architected, operated and monetized, not simply upgrading isolated components. With our delayered architecture on display, spanning Open RAN, cloud-native orchestration, AI-powered automation and business-centric platforms, we presented a model aimed at simplifying operations, reducing costs and unlocking new business opportunities. The messaging attracted attention from operators, analysts and technology partners, generating steady engagement across digital channels.
This year, we continued to build momentum at other key industry forums, including Digital Transformation World (DTW) and FutureNet World events. At DTW, we showcased live use cases that demonstrated orchestration agility and flexible business models, while reinforcing how AI-driven automation allows operators to anticipate, adjust and optimize network behavior in real time.
The FutureNet series took the conversation further, with a growing focus on self-healing networks, dynamic service optimization and AI-powered customer experience management. These discussions emphasized that Intelligent Growth is not a distant vision but a direction actively being tested, validated and deployed. In many ways, AI has shifted the conversation from predictive to prescriptive, allowing operators to respond to complexity with speed and precision that was not possible before.
What differentiates our marketing approach is its alignment with the real-world pressures operators face. This is not a race measured in technical milestones alone. It is judged by business outcomes. Operators are under pressure to modernize infrastructure, diversify revenue streams and move beyond legacy service models. Intelligent Growth speaks directly to these priorities, addressing not only technology complexity but the fundamental question of long-term viability.
What is Intelligent Growth?
Intelligent Growth is more than a marketing theme – it’s our strategic lens for building a future-ready telecom industry. At its core, it blends telecom expertise with digital business fundamentals, helping operators navigate complexity with clarity and purpose.
Rather than focusing on tools or trends, Intelligent Growth puts outcomes first. We anchor our strategy around a simple equation:
Customer Lifetime Value = Acquisition Cost × Churn × Monthly Profit
The goal is to improve every element of this formula, not through incremental fixes, but by adopting a platform mindset built on five foundational layers:
This framework allows operators to start where the pain is greatest – whether it's infrastructure cost, vendor lock-in or churn – and build outward from there. Each layer feeds into the next, creating a flywheel effect that drives business transformation, not just technical evolution.
Intelligent Growth is how we link operational simplicity, AI-led intelligence and business viability into one cohesive vision for the industry.
By emphasizing outcomes such as customer lifetime value, acquisition costs, churn reduction and margin expansion, we frame our technology within a language that resonates across both technical and business leadership. This outcome-driven positioning allows us to remain relevant across multiple layers of industry conversation.
Our growing presence and scale of impact are reinforced by wider recognition across the telecom industry. Over the past year, both the company and members of our leadership team have been acknowledged across multiple categories, from cloud-native innovation and Open RAN deployment to AI-powered operations and overall marketing transformation in the telecom space.
These recognitions reflect growing industry confidence in our approach and its potential role in shaping telecom’s next phase.
The process of establishing leadership in a transforming industry is a marathon, not a sprint. With steady, outcome-focused messaging anchored in Intelligent Growth, we have established a strong footing. As AI, cloud-native platforms and software-defined operations continue to reshape the playing field, our evolving narrative keeps us actively engaged in the ongoing dialogue shaping telecom’s future.
The author, Vijayalaxmi Shinde, is the latest recipient of the Gold Award for Corporate Narrative/Storytelling at the ET Edge Most Promising Tech Marketer Awards 2025.
