Vodafone taps Samsung for Open RAN rollout across Romania

Vodafone Romania has selected Samsung to deploy the latter's fully virtualized RAN software (vRAN) and radio solutions for the Open RAN rollout across major urban cities in the country. The rollout is aimed at delivering high-quality, stable commercial network services to Vodafone's customers.

"As our collaboration with Vodafone continues to make strides across Europe, this rollout in Romania will mark a significant milestone that underscores our dedication to network innovation. Our pioneering network solutions will propel Vodafone Romania's transformation journey, providing a flexible and powerful way to realize the full potential of Open RAN. We look forward to combining our diverse experiences together to reshape the future of connectivity," said Woojune Kim, President and Head of Networks Business at Samsung Electronics.

The partnership will see Samsung providing its vRAN solutions supporting multi-RAT, automation solutions and Open RAN-compliant triple-band radios as well as 5G Massive MIMO radios. Samsung's triple-band radio combines 700MHz, 800MHZ and 900MHz frequency bands into one compact radio, providing multi-spectrum coverage for 2G, 4G and 5G. The integration also enables increased network capacity, greater flexibility and a smaller footprint.

Furthermore, Samsung's software-based vRAN solution supports multiple generations of network technologies in a single platform, including 2G, an important spectrum for Internet of Small Things (IoST), machine-to-machine (M2M) communications and voice communications for roaming services in Europe.

Commenting on this partnership, Alberto Ripepi, Chief Network Officer at Vodafone Group, said, "The momentum behind Open RAN technologies, in Vodafone and amongst our partners, is building. As new technologies like generative AI take root and are embedded within businesses, factories, and healthcare practices, they will require intelligence-based powerful networks to support them. Open RAN is designed to do just that."