Samsung breaks new 5G ground as it becomes Vodafone's O-RAN vendor

Samsung Electronics is officially the leading Open RAN vendor for Vodafone UK, the company announced today. Samsung will be responsible for bringing vRAN (Virtualized Radio Access Network) to Vodafone UK, along with 4G, 5G, and Massive MIMO solutions. This collaboration represents the first wide-scale commercial deployment of vRAN and O-RAN in Europe.

Huawei has been removed from UK's 5G network infrastructure plans, and some mobile carriers have committed to decommissioning all Huawei network gear by 2023. Last year, the UK government began a conversation with Samsung and other telecom infrastructure suppliers and expressed a need to replace Huawei's equipment, while network operators BT and Vodafone decided to support the Open RAN standards to ensure compatibility between network components supplied by different vendors.

This allowed Samsung to establish a stronger presence in the UK, and now, the company was picked by Vodafone UK to deliver vRAN solutions and O-RAN compliant 5G radios and Massive MIMO stations.

This represents an important milestone for Samsung and should strengthen the company's 5G presence in Europe. It's the company's first large-scale vRAN collaboration with a leading European network operator. One of the greatest benefits offered by Samsung's software-based vRAN solution is that it can run on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) servers, all the while delivering performance levels that are comparable to traditional hardware-based equipment.

Mihai Matei - Senior Editor

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First Samsung device: SGH-A800

Mihai is a blogger and column writer at SamMobile. His first Samsung phone was an A800 which took a lot of beating, and a part of him still misses the novelty of the clamshell design. In his free time, he enjoys watching shows, documentaries, and stand-up comedy; listening to music, taking walks, and occasionally playing old(er) video games.

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