Taking back control: Why 6G must be operator-owned and how to get there

A white paper by Rakuten Mobile’s Dr. David Soldani argues that the 2026-2028 architectural decisions for 6G will determine whether mobile operators regain control of their networks or lock in further vendor dependency. Soldani calls for operators to own the software-defined control plane, deliver verifiable customer outcomes, build sustainable outcome-based contracts, operate networks as software with autonomous AI, and treat technology as an enabler rather than a strategy driver. The paper draws on twenty years of vendor-driven evidence and Rakuten Mobile’s own cloud-native network deployment as proof of concept.