INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Mobile Technology
Samsung to bring open RAN to Europe with Vodafone UK
Vodafone UK selects Samsung for Europe ’ s first wide-scale commercial deployment of Open RAN powered by vRAN ; Samsung enters Europe with its latest 5G solutions .
Samsung Electronics has announced that it has been selected as a leading Open RAN vendor for Vodafone , a major telecommunications company , to bring virtualised Radio Access Network ( vRAN ) to the United Kingdom ( UK ), as well as its latest 4G and 5G solutions , including its Massive MIMO and other radios .
For this collaboration , Samsung will supply its commercial vRAN solutions and O-RAN compliant radios , covering both low-band and mid-band spectrum . The company ’ s fully-virtualised RAN is software-based and runs on Commercial Off-the-Shelf ( COTS ) servers , offering features and performance that are equivalent to traditional hardwarebased equipment . Using a cloud-native and container-based architecture , Samsung ’ s vRAN enables more flexible deployments and efficiency in network management for mobile operators .
Among the key benefits of the revolutionary architecture is its automation capabilities , which simplify end-to-end network management . With Samsung ’ s vRAN , operators can quickly meet the evolving demands of new and existing services with minimal impact on deployment . Samsung will also deliver to Vodafone UK its market leading O-RAN compliant 5G radios , including the latest Massive MIMO radios .
“ Vodafone is committed to leading the next wave of Digital Transformation across Europe , ensuring fast and reliable connectivity for all ,” said Johan Wibergh , Chief Technology Officer , Vodafone . “ Open RAN , built on strong partnerships , is key to realising this ambition . Samsung ’ s innovative solutions and expertise are part of the foundation that is creating this network of the future .”
This collaboration with Vodafone marks a first for Samsung , as the company brings its cloud-native virtualised RAN technology to a leading operator ’ s network in Europe . As acknowledged by many in the industry , Virtualised RAN and O-RAN technologies will be important to helping evolve network architectures to power the next generation of 5G applications and services . To this end , Samsung has been continuously leading in vRAN innovation , most recently showing the capability to support the multigigabit speeds of Massive MIMO radios on COTS servers .
“ We are proud that this collaboration with Vodafone – one of the premier carriers in the world – will be the first scaled deployment of our pioneering 5G technologies in Europe , including vRAN and O-RAN ,” said Paul Kyungwhoon Cheun , President and Head of Networks Business at Samsung Electronics .
“ This is a major step forward as more operators are transitioning into new RAN technologies to prioritise user experience and efficiency . We look forward to continue leading the way in 5G innovation to meet our customer ’ s highest standards of performance , functionality and reliability .” p
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