Building upon successful commercial deployments, the companies are making headway in expanding Open RAN across Europe

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. today announced that Vodafone has selected the company as a primary partner for deploying Open RAN in Germany and other European countries. This collaboration marks a significant milestone in Samsung's continued growth in the region, as it propels the advancement of the European mobile landscape through its industry-leading virtualized RAN (vRAN) and Open RAN solutions alongside AI and automation capabilities.

Germany is the first market implementing the solutions and will become one of the largest Open RAN deployments in Europe, with Samsung equipping thousands of sites. The first site is already live in Hannover, and Wismar is set to become the first city served by Vodafone to be fully equipped with Open RAN in early 2026. Vodafone will work with Samsung to add thousands of Open RAN sites across Europe over a five-year programme. 

Over the years, Samsung has demonstrated its technological leadership by supporting Vodafone in building confidence in Open RAN technology, leading to Vodafone’s decision to initiate a large-scale deployment in Germany, the biggest operation in Vodafone’s portfolio. Following the deployment in Germany, Samsung will work with Vodafone to continue expanding Open RAN in other European markets. Through this expanded collaboration, Vodafone and Samsung are leading Open RAN momentum in the European market, underscoring the companies' continued efforts to transforming the mobile network landscape and the mutual trust they have cultivated.

For this extensive project, Samsung will provide its versatile vRAN solution with multi-generational support across 2G, 4G and 5G. The company will also deliver O-RAN compliant radios including Massive MIMO radios, AI-powered Samsung CognitiV Network Operations Suite (NOS) and system integration services. Leveraging its software-based architecture, Samsung vRAN delivers enhanced capabilities that improve energy efficiency, optimize performance, while supporting intelligent automation to drive total cost of ownership (TCO) savings.

By harnessing its expertise in interoperability and providing system integration services, Samsung will work with industry-leading partners—Dell Technologies (servers), Intel (processors), and Wind River (cloud platform).

“Open RAN is a key pillar of our mission to build best-in-class networks and Vodafone has already proven the power of this innovative technology through our work with Samsung. The next step in our journey is to extend our Open RAN reach to more countries” said Alberto Ripepi, Chief Network Officer at Vodafone. “By bringing in enhanced capabilities powered by AI and automation, we look forward to fostering a more advanced digital society as well as providing greater connectivity to our customers.”

“In the midst of a transformational shift in the telco industry, Samsung has been spearheading software-based and autonomous networks including vRAN and Open RAN. Leveraging our unmatched technological expertise and real-world pedigree, we are empowering our customers to have a competitive edge in evolving their networks in the AI era,” said Woojune Kim, President and Head of Networks Business at Samsung Electronics. “Samsung is fully committed to supporting Vodafone's vision to shape the future of networks by bringing proven, cutting-edge technologies, with a strong start in Germany.”

This collaboration holds significance beyond expanding geographical coverage. Vodafone and Samsung are advancing AI-friendly and autonomous Open RAN by utilizing software-based architecture. vRAN serves as an optimal foundation for AI, enabling operators to seamlessly integrate AI capabilities into their networks, such as AI-powered Samsung CognitiV NOS. This automation solution is a set of diverse AI applications with multi-vendor support. Spanning mobile core, radio access, and transport elements, Samsung’s end-to-end network automation solution plays a crucial role in adopting and managing open, software-based networks at scale. 

Samsung will offer Vodafone full observability across lifecycle management of its network from planning, deployment and operation to optimization, helping the operator deploy and manage large-scale virtualized Open RAN networks more intelligently and efficiently. AI-powered Energy Saving Manager (AI-ESM), one of the key applications of Samsung CognitiV NOS, will be deployed to significantly increase energy efficiency. It analyzes site environments and traffic patterns, then switches off cell sites during low traffic times and turns them back on when traffic increases, ultimately improving energy efficiency while ensuring network performance.

In addition, Samsung is delivering its latest radios and software capabilities that support RAN sharing. Samsung's comprehensive portfolio of radios not only covers diverse spectrum bands but also supports wide bandwidth and high transmit power required for RAN sharing in European countries. As RAN sharing is essential in facilitating wide-scale Open RAN adoption in certain areas of the region, Samsung's solution will help operators deliver high-performing shared networks while reducing hardware costs and lowering energy consumption. 

“Through years of collaboration with Vodafone and other leading operators across North America, Europe, and Asia, Samsung has built deep technological expertise and extensive deployment experience in open and virtualized RAN,” said Rémy Pascal, Practice Leader, Mobile infrastructure at global analyst firm Omdia. “Vodafone’s decision to select Samsung further validates its market leadership in open vRAN.”

Samsung has pioneered the successful delivery of 5G end-to-end solutions, including chipsets, radios and cores. Through ongoing research and development, Samsung drives the industry to advance 5G networks with its market-leading product portfolio, from purpose-built RAN, vRAN, Open RAN, and core to private network solutions and AI-powered automation tools and applications. The company currently provides innovative network solutions to mobile operators and enterprises that deliver boundless connectivity to hundreds of millions of users worldwide.

About Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Samsung inspires the world and shapes the future with transformative ideas and technologies. The company is redefining the worlds of TVs, digital signage, smartphones, wearables, tablets, home appliances and network systems, as well as memory, system LSI and foundry. Samsung is also advancing medical imaging technologies, HVAC solutions and robotics, while creating innovative automotive and audio products through Harman. With its SmartThings ecosystem, open collaboration with partners, and integration of AI across its portfolio, Samsung delivers a seamless and intelligent connected experience. For the latest news, please visit the Samsung Newsroom at news.samsung.com.