Rakuten Mobile has a very different approach to vendor relationships, compared to most established operators. For one thing, its greenfield nature and cloud-native platform have enabled it to adopt a truly multivendor approach, although its long list of suppliers has been assembled at the cost of huge inhouse engineering efforts. And also, having set up Rakuten Symphony to commercialize its open networking platform and services with other operators, the company will choose its partners with that wider business in mind. If Symphony succeeds, it will be a far more important revenue generator for the Rakuten group than its Japanese MNO, which has to compete in one of the world’s most advanced but saturated mobile markets. The choice of partners for…