Rakuten and AST SpaceMobile's move is not just a partnership announcement: it's a direct assault on Starlink's hold over Japan's nascent satellite market. The joint venture aims to deliver broadband connectivity directly to mobile phones, bypassing terrestrial towers and challenging SpaceX's constellation that already has thousands of satellites in low Earth orbit.

A challenge in the Land of the Rising Sun

Japan, with its mountainous regions and remote islands, is an ideal testing ground for satellite-to-phone technology. Starlink has begun offering services there, but the arrival of a consortium including local telecom giant Rakuten reshuffles the deck. The joint venture will leverage AST SpaceMobile's technology, which promises to connect standard smartphones without dedicated hardware—a key advantage over fixed terminals required by other solutions.

LEO and the new telecom space race

Low Earth orbit (LEO) constellations are reshaping global networking. Unlike geostationary satellites, LEO ones offer lower latency and higher per-megabit capacity. Yet their effectiveness hinges on satellite density and the ability to handle rapid handovers. In this context, each new operator adds regulatory and technical complexity, but also opportunities for redundancy and comprehensive coverage.

Connectivity as an enabler for on-premise AI

Those who manage local computing infrastructure—perhaps for Large Language Model inference in factories, hospitals, or remote sites—know that connectivity is the first building block. Without fiber or 5G, an on-premise system remains isolated, defeating updates, synchronization, and hybrid cloud access. Satellite networks can fill this gap, especially in scenarios where data sovereignty demands local processing but a secure backhaul channel is needed. It's no coincidence that AI-RADAR closely tracks connectivity infrastructure: for anyone evaluating self-hosted deployments, Total Cost of Ownership calculations must also account for network availability and latency.

Implications for digital sovereignty and the market

A satellite infrastructure competing with the US-based one can be a strategic option for government bodies and enterprises seeking to avoid dependence on foreign actors. From a compliance and data protection standpoint, routing traffic through constellations run by local or allied entities reduces exposure to extra-EU jurisdictions. However, the technical challenges are huge: AST SpaceMobile still has to prove full large-scale operation and the economic sustainability of the model.

A scenario still taking shape

The game has just begun. Starlink enjoys a first-mover advantage and an integrated launch pipeline with SpaceX. The Japanese joint venture, though, can rely on local know-how and a market attentive to service quality. Meanwhile, for IT decision-makers eyeing distributed AI inference deployments, the message is clear: satellite connectivity is becoming a design variable to include in the spreadsheet, right alongside GPU, VRAM, and serving pipelines.