Samsung and Vodafone continue to lead Open RAN innovation across Europe – Samsung Global Newsroom

Following their successful launch in the UK, Samsung and Vodafone are beginning to advance next-generation 5G Open RAN networks in Germany and Spain

Samsung Electronics and Vodafone today announced plans to accelerate the expansion of 5G Open RAN across Europe, launching new open network initiatives in Germany and Spain, while enhancing Vodafone’s 5G network UK

This builds on the two companies’ initial network collaboration, including Vodafone UK’s successful launch of the first 5G Open RAN site in Bath, UK in January 2022 using Samsung’s Virtualized RAN (vRAN) solution. . Vodafone and Samsung are proving stable performance and capacity in Vodafone UK’s commercial network, exceeding the level of performance and energy savings targeted in its strategic Open RAN sites (also known as the “Golden Cluster”), located in Exmouth and Torquay, England.

“As we grow and expand our network, we are excited to jointly drive Open RAN collaborative innovation and continue our groundbreaking work with Samsung,” said Santiago Tenorio, director of network architecture at Vodafone. “We look forward to continuing to make fundamental improvements to our large-scale next-generation network, to further accelerate our open network approach to 5G expansion across Europe.”

New European 5G initiatives

Building on their collaborative advancements, the two companies continue to grow their Open RAN footprint in Europe. New developments and projects include:

• The UK.: The companies have implemented Samsung’s O-RAN compliant Massive MIMO radios in Vodafone UK’s commercial network, effectively extending 5G coverage in the UK. With this, Samsung’s Massive MIMO 64T64R radios are now successfully integrated with 5G vRAN, carrying commercial data traffic. Recently, the companies also made a data call using Samsung’s vRAN and NEC’s Massive MIMO radio, demonstrating multi-vendor interoperability for Vodafone’s commercial network. This illustrates how Open RAN technology can enable multi-vendor integration of vRAN, not only with single-band radios, but also with more complex Massive MIMO radios.
• In Germany: Vodafone will carry out full pilot projects for Open RAN using Samsung’s 2G/4G vRAN and O-RAN compatible radio solutions. In these commercial pilots announced in October 2022, Vodafone will use Samsung’s mature solutions — proven in large-scale commercial networks — to demonstrate exceptional performance, stability and reliability.
• In Spain: Samsung has joined the Vodafone Benchmark in Ciudad Real, which was created to evaluate mature RAN vendors and compare the performance of traditional and open RANs. Samsung will deploy its Massive MIMO and 4G/5G vRAN radios in CREATE (Ciudad Real España Advanced Testing Environment) to evaluate and verify their performance in the Spanish urban environment.

“Samsung’s virtualized Open RAN solutions are successfully running on Vodafone’s commercial network in the UK, delivering performance comparable to traditional mobile radio networks and providing Vodafone with an agile network on which to deploy new services and features,” said Thomas Riedel, director of Samsung. European networks. “Vodafone was a pioneer in the Open RAN space and continues to innovate. We are excited to deepen our collaboration with Vodafone by expanding our capabilities across Europe and taking vRAN innovation to the next level.

Continuing to claim deployment milestones, the two companies remain strong partners in 5G Open vRAN innovation. Vodafone and Samsung are collaborating with other Open RAN leaders to accelerate Open RAN with greater diversity and a multi-vendor open architecture.