Samsung and Vodafone to Expand 5G Open RAN Innovation Across Europe

Samsung Electronics and Vodafone are expanding their 5G Open RAN innovation in Germany and Spain while enhancing the Vodafone 5G networks in the U.K. 

According to a Samsung Newsroom press release, the 5G networks continue to show stable performance and capacity, even exceeding expected target performance levels and power savings in England.   

“[We] are excited to jointly drive collaborative Open RAN innovation and continue our groundbreaking work together with Samsung,” shared Vodafone Director of Network Architecture Santiago Tenorio. “We look forward to continue bringing fundamental improvements to our wide-scale next-generation network, to further accelerate our open network approach for 5G expansion across Europe.” 

Part of the tandem’s Open RAN initiatives include expanding 5G services in the U.K. by allowing companies to implement Samsung’s Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) compliant Massive MIMO radios in Vodafone’s commercial network.  

In Germany, Vodafone plans to carry out Open RAN pilot projects using Samsung’s 2G/4G vRAN and O-RAN complaint radio solutions. “[Vodafone] will use Samsung’s mature solutions — proven in large-scale commercial networks — to demonstrate outstanding performance, stability and reliability,” the post wrote.  

In Spain, Samsung joined Vodafone’s 5G testbed located in Ciudad Real. Here, the companies will compare mature RAN providers across both traditional and Open RAN. Afterwards, the South Korean mobile company will launch its Massive MIMO radios and 4G/5G vRAN via CREATE (Ciudad Real España Advanced Testing Environment) to evaluate and verify performance across Spain. 

Samsung and Vodafone’s network collaboration began last January 2022, when the two tech giants teamed up to launch the first 5G Open RAN site in Bath, U.K., using Samsung’s virtualized RAN (vRAN) technology.