This Week's Mobile and Telecom News (Sep 30 - Oct 7): Rakuten Drive, au Roaming, ahamo, and a Flying Base Station

There was a lot of mobile and telecom news this week, wasn’t there?

It’s hard to follow each story one by one, so I’ve put this week’s 5 together in one place.

The period is September 30 to October 7, 2026. It covers what could be confirmed from reports such as Keitai Watch and from official pages. The details are in each individual article.

One thing up front: this site uses Rakuten Mobile referral links. News that is unfavorable to Rakuten gets the same treatment.

1. Unauthorized access at Rakuten Drive (announced October 6)

• Stored data was obtained or viewed for 15,382 accounts
• Information such as account names was affected for 687 accounts. For 313 of those, encrypted passwords were also affected, according to reports
• The cause: authentication credentials for a system administration account were illegally obtained by a third party
• Affected users will be notified individually. No secondary damage has been confirmed at this time, according to the report

What users should check is summarized in a separate article (not linked here).

2. Rakuten Mobile’s au roaming: the previous arrangement ends (end of September)

• KDDI’s roaming to Rakuten Mobile: the previous arrangement ended at the end of September 2026
• From October, roaming in areas that Rakuten built out itself is discontinued
• A Keitai Watch column gives a rough estimate of area shrinkage of about 37% in designated cities and about 20% on a national average. However, this is an estimate from image analysis, not an official figure

How much this affects you depends on your area. There is an article that separates facts from views (not linked here). If your signal is poor, there is also a way to officially request an improvement (not linked here).

3. ahamo goes to 3,135 yen for 40GB (price hike)

• From the previous 2,970 yen, a 165 yen increase. The data allowance goes up by 10GB
• Above 40GB, it becomes tiered (over 40GB up to 60GB is 4,125 yen; over 60GB up to 120GB is 5,115 yen)
• The effective date is written inconsistently in the column, as both October 1 and December 1. It needs to be checked against Docomo’s official announcement
• Rakuten Mobile is unlimited data at 3,278 yen above 20GB. However, the column says there is a reversal in the range from over 20GB up to 40GB, where ahamo is cheaper

Details of the comparison are in a separate article (not linked here). The reason the prices look different depending on where you look is summarized in another one (not linked here).

4. SoftBank provides service from an unmanned aircraft at 3,000 m (reported October 2)

• Off the coast of Kuroshio Town, Kochi Prefecture, an unmanned aircraft flying at 3,000 m created a communication area on the ground with a diameter of 5 km or more
• Speeds were up to 20 Mbps downlink and up to 5 Mbps uplink, outdoors
• The purpose is temporary communication in disasters. The date of the trial and the timing of commercialization are not stated in the report

More details are in a separate article (not linked here).

5. Campaigns from each carrier

• Rakuten Mobile’s “First-Time Sign-Up Campaign”: 10,000 points for switching, 9,000 points for a new contract (applications from October 1, 2026)
• SoftBank has 3 models from “12 yen for 1 year,” and au has the “Xperia 10 VIII” at “47 yen for 2 years.” Many have strong headline numbers. However, all of them come with conditions, such as requiring the device to be returned

The article that organizes campaigns from 6 carriers, with conditions and notes, is a separate one (not linked here).

What this week’s news suggests (my own view)

From here on, this is my own view.

• Neither pricing nor coverage can be judged from the “headline number” alone. You need to check the premises (tax included or not, discount or not, return or not)
• Roaming, price revisions and campaigns are all moving at the same time, giving you several things to weigh when switching. It seems best to first check two things: the signal where you live and the amount of data you use every month

Summary

• Rakuten Drive unauthorized access: stored data for 15,382 accounts. Affected users are notified individually
• Rakuten Mobile’s au roaming: the previous arrangement ended at the end of September. The impact depends on your area
• ahamo: 3,135 yen for 40GB. The way the effective date is written needs checking
• SoftBank: service from an unmanned aircraft at 3,000 m. The purpose is temporary communication in disasters
• Campaigns: check the conditions behind the headlines

News moves every day. The dates in each article are the information at that time. Before you apply or make a decision, check the official announcement.

Sources: Keitai Watch, ASCII.jp, Rakuten Mobile official site

• Rakuten Drive: stored data of 15,000 accounts leaked in unauthorized access (October 6, 2026) (in Japanese)
• au roaming to Rakuten Mobile: area map from October released (September 30, 2026) (in Japanese)
• Is Docomo’s “ahamo”, now more expensive, really a bad deal? A price comparison with UQ, Y!mobile and Rakuten reveals “surprisingly low prices” (October 7, 2026) (in Japanese)
• SoftBank succeeds in providing communication service from an unmanned aircraft at 3,000 m, aiming for practical use in disaster response (October 2, 2026) (in Japanese)

This article contains affiliate advertising. If you apply for a product or service through links on this site, we may receive compensation from partner companies. Additionally, the operator is an employee of Rakuten Group and may receive compensation through an employee referral program. Article content and evaluations are based on the operator's actual experience and research, regardless of advertising. For details, see the Disclaimer & Affiliate Disclosure. Disclaimer & Affiliate Disclosure

This article contains machine translation. For official terms, please refer to the multilingual pages on the official Rakuten Mobile website.

If you have concerns about Rakuten Mobile's coverage area or signal conditions, you can inquire through the official signal improvement survey request form .