Rakuten's $28 per month 5G service to intensify price war with rivals

Rakuten Inc. will start offering unlimited data services using ultrafast 5G networks for $28 per month Wednesday, following Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga requests for mobile phone service operators to reduce prices.

The rate is less than half of what other major wireless carriers in Japan charge customers.

Major wireless carriers NTT Docomo Inc., SoftBank Corp., and KDDI Corp. charge between $66.35 and $75.83 per month currently for 5G data service plans.

Rates in Japan are higher than in other countries.

Rakuten's low-priced 5G service, which is expected to intensify the price battle against bigger rivals, would be available only in Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, and some other major cities where the company established its networks.

Rakuten drastically lowered fees by cutting costs in building base stations while its rivals spend several hundred billion yen annually to build 5G networks across Japan.

Rakuten Mobile originally planned to offer its 5G services beginning in June but postponed the launch due to the pandemic.