Rakuten Mobile made a fresh play for new subscribers, employing an existing tactic of offering free data as a lure as it seeks to build on the 3.9 million customers attracted in its first year of operation.

The operator stated a new promotion covers a three-month period and is open to customers signing up to its Unlimit VI service for the first time, those who switch to the service or current users of its namesake MVNO service.

Rakuten Mobile lit its commercial 4G network a year ago to the day, offering 12 months of free service to the first 3 million customers as it looked to swiftly build its user base. The company hasn’t revealed subscriber figures, releasing only the number of users applying for the service.

It introduced the Unlimit VI plan in January, in a bid to cater to customers which are relatively light data users.

At the time, Rakuten Mobile had deployed 11,500 base stations for a population coverage of 73.5 per cent. It aims to increase this to 96 per cent by the middle of the year.