Japan Telecoms: Is Rakuten readying to push for spectrum?

Research evidence excerpt

Japan Telecoms: Is Rakuten readying to push for spectrum?

Deutsche Bank

Research

Japan Industry Date

Japan 15 May 2026

Japan Telecoms

Telecom Forecast Change

Is Rakuten readying to push for

spectrum?

Peter Milliken, CFA

Mid-term guidance was solid, but not surprising, with population decline a Research Analyst

common point of note +852-2203 6190

4Q delivered a continuation of recent messaging, with mid-term plans released,

and largely following previous strategy outlines. One thing that did stand out was Companies featured

the messaging that the core telephony business is plateauing, due to the population

SoftBank Group (9984.T),¥5,770 Buy

being in decline. Despite this, operators are still mildly optimistic that they can

2025A 2026E 2027E

extract gains through efficiencies from the legacy business, and grow in enterprise,

P/E (x) 2.5 35.1 80.4

and digital services. We found mid-term guidance encouraging, but not surprising.

EV/EBITDA (x) 3.8 14.6 14.5

Price/book (x) 0.6 1.8 1.7

The other mid-term issue is if Rakuten gets more platinum band spectrum

SoftBank Corp (9434.T),¥222 Buy

We do wonder however if the quarter highlighted a potential negative that is

starting to come to the surface - of Rakuten getting additional platinum band

spectrum. The company included a spectrum table that included a line next to a P/E (x) 16.9 18.9 17.8

column marked 800/900MHz, that said: "Rakuten Mobile can decide when to EV/EBITDA (x) 6.1 6.5 6.2

submit application for frequency allocation". Now it did start adding this sheet Price/book (x) 3.4 3.5 3.6

several quarters ago, but this quarter it moved into the mobile segment. To us this KDDI Corp (9433.T),¥2,646 Hold

suggests the company will make a bigger push to secure such spectrum, but it may 2026A 2027E 2028E