From left, Andrew Defelice, Yokota exchange general manager, and Col. Andrew Roddan, 374th Airlift Wing commander, with employees of Rakuten Mobile open the company’s branch at Yokota Air Base, Japan, on Dec. 22, 2023. (Kelly Agee/Stars and Stripes)

YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — Rakuten Mobile opened its first store on a U.S. military installation in Japan on Friday, giving service members living at this airlift hub in western Tokyo the choice of a second internet service provider.

“This was one of our huge initiatives for 2023, bringing in an alternative internet option for the Yokota community,” said Andrew Defelice, general manager of the Army and Air Force Exchange Service at Yokota, during the store’s opening ceremony. 

Service members and their families had voiced their dissatisfaction with having only one internet service provider on base, the base commander said at the opening.

Rakuten Mobile opened in a space inside the Yokota Community Center. Previously, only Allied Telesis provided internet service to base residents.

“This is an example of how our community gets to speak and gets to be heard,” Col. Andrew Roddan, 374^th Airlift Wing commander, said at the business opening. “We got the feedback that they wanted some competition and that they wanted another option.”

Rakuten Mobile is part of Rakuten Group Inc., a Japanese technology conglomerate based in Tokyo.

Many service members living at Yokota complained that having just one internet provider on base resulted in expensive internet bills.

“The monopoly just means that they can charge whatever they want, and you have to pay it because the alternative is not having internet at all,” Staff Sgt. Boston Postgate, 374^th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, told Stars and Stripes by phone Wednesday.

An Allied Telesis manager did not reply to a message seeking comment Friday that was relayed by employees at Yokota on behalf of Stars and Stripes.

Service members voiced their excitement on social media after the exchange on Tuesday announced the store opening.

“I have honestly been looking forward to a second service provider,” Senior Airman Nicolas Hernandez, 374^th Security Forces Squadron, told Stars and Stripes in a Facebook message Tuesday. “It would be great competition against Allied Telesis, and I look forward to seeing who has the best offers on hopefully cheaper internet plans.”