Dell, HPE, Intel, Red Hat, Wind River working with Samsung on multi-vendor “solution roadmaps”
Samsung Networks has been at the front of the push toward virtualization of radio access networks and is now working with key hardware, software and silicon partners to conduct interoperability verification in an effort to put together “solution roadmaps” that would, in theory, remove friction from standing up a multi-vendor network.
Announced today, Samsung’s vRAN ecosystem partners are Dell, HPE, Intel, Red Hat and Wind River. All of these names are bullish on the outlook for virtualized and Open RAN systems sensing opportunity variously around telco servers, silicon and accelerators, and orchestration and management of the whole thing.
In a not-so-veiled-jab at competitive firms, Samsung’s Woojune Kim, EVP and Head of Global Sales and Marketing for the Networks Business, commented: “While many vendors claim they support Open RAN by starting with the RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC), in reality, this is still far from commercialization in large-scale networks and sidesteps the most important part of the Open RAN revolution—which starts from disaggregation of hardware and software in the baseband, and also involves opening of the fronthaul.”
Last month Samsung and Vodafone UK switched on what the companies said is fist commercial Open RAN site in the U.K. Following this activation in Bath, Vodafone UK is planning 2,500 additional Open RAN sites in the publicly detailed tranche.
Writing for this publication, analyst Prakash Sangam detailed what this means: “Vodafone, one of the biggest European and global carriers, selecting Samsung Networks as a partner for its maiden Open RAN journey speaks volumes of the maturity and competitiveness of its technology and solutions.
Along with this significant engagement with Vodafone, Samsung is also working with Deutsche Telecom in the Czech Republic and Orange in France. These three give it access to the largest and most lucrative European markets in the heartlands of traditional players such as Ericsson and Nokia.”
Vodafone Group CTO Johan Wibergh, speaking during the ongoing Mobile World Congress Barcelona, said the company plans to have Open RAN account for 30% of its European network footprint by 2030.
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