KDDI to end roaming provision to Rakuten Mobile at the end of September

On August 7, 2026, KDDI President Hiroji Matsuda declared that Rakuten Mobile's roaming service would end at the end of September as per the contract.

Until now, he had repeatedly made somewhat suggestive statements, but with less than two months left until his contract expired, he needed to clearly state his policy.

The current contract will end at the end of September, but it will only be applied to downtown areas and residential areas, and it is expected to continue in areas such as rural areas from October onwards.

Since the end of roaming will have a major impact on Rakuten Mobile users, Rakuten Mobile should have announced this first. If both companies had felt that they would not cause any inconvenience to users, they could have made the announcement a little earlier.

If you look at Rakuten Mobile's ``partner line area map,'' areas such as the Kanto area are painted in a thick, dark pink. On the other hand, the partner line area, or KDDI roaming area, appears to be a very limited area.

On the other hand, if you look at the roaming area map provided by KDDI, there are many places in the Kanto area that are colored orange.

While Rakuten Mobile says, ``This is our own area,'' KDDI says, ``No, no, in fact, roaming is also provided. If you say so, we will discontinue roaming.''

If Rakuten Mobile's area map is followed, there will be no particular problem even if the contract ends in areas such as the Kanto area, and there should be no complaints from users.

However, when some roaming areas were discontinued in June, Rakuten Mobile users voiced their dissatisfaction.

According to a KDDI official, ``the discontinuation in June is really just a small portion,'' and it is possible that there will be a significant number of complaints once roaming in downtown areas and residential areas ends from October onwards.

This time, KDDI says it will continue to provide roaming in rural areas.

However, Rakuten Mobile plans to launch the ``Rakuten Strongest Satellite Service'' using AST within this year.

Naturally, Rakuten Mobile will no longer construct base stations in rural areas and expects to be able to cover them with AST.

Considering this, it seems possible that KDDI's provision of roaming to Rakuten Mobile in rural areas may end in a surprisingly short period of time.