Rakuten Mobile turned EBITDA positive in 2025 and the group followed into profit

Rakuten entered Japan's mobile market in 2019 as the fourth carrier, promising to break the NTT Docomo-KDDI-SoftBank oligopoly with cheap, app-integrated plans built on its own cloud-native network. The gamble was expensive: the mobile segment dragged the group into repeated operating losses, and Rakuten spent years funding network construction from the profits of its e-commerce and fintech ecosystem.

The turning point came in the full-year results for 2025, reported in February 2026: Rakuten Mobile registered positive EBITDA of ¥12.9 billion ($85 million), up from minus ¥53.8 billion a year earlier. The mobile segment, including the Symphony equipment unit, grew revenue 9.6% to ¥482.8 billion ($3.2 billion) and cut its operating loss by ¥47.1 billion to ¥161.8 billion, while Rakuten Symphony posted its first-ever non-GAAP operating income by shifting from low-margin hardware to software.

Rather than starving the business once it turned, management doubled down on growth: 2026 capex was raised ¥62.9 billion to ¥200 billion ($1.3 billion) to speed construction for rising subscriptions. By the second quarter of 2026 the group as a whole converted: record consolidated revenue of ¥665.5 billion (+11.6%) and its first quarterly operating profit in six years, with mobile losses narrowed further to ¥33.1 billion.

Rakuten Mobile EBITDA swung to +¥12.9bn in 2025 from −¥53.8bn; Q2 2026 delivered the group's first quarterly operating profit in six years on record revenue of ¥665.5bn.

Rakuten's e-commerce and fintech ecosystem generated the cash that let the mobile venture survive six loss-making years instead of retreating.

Curbing short-term subscriptions in favor of loyal long-term customers rebuilt the mobile business on sustainable revenue rather than subsidy-driven signups.

Rakuten Symphony's shift from hardware delivery to high-margin software cut the cost side of the network bet.

Management raised capex into the turnaround, treating positive EBITDA as the signal to accelerate network build rather than harvest.

A loss-making strategic bet can be carried by ecosystem profits only until it reaches self-sustaining economics; EBITDA flip marks the point to accelerate, not harvest.

Rakuten Mobile entered 2026 with positive EBITDA, a raised ¥200 billion construction budget and what the company called a sustainable growth structure centered on loyal customers. The group's Q2 2026 results showed all three segments — internet services, fintech and mobile — growing together, though operating income remained thin and the stock's reaction to the pace of the profit recovery stayed volatile.