Vodafone starts replacing Huawei with Open RAN equipments

Vodafone is currently embarking on a significant initiative to upgrade its mobile network infrastructure across 2,500 sites throughout Wales and the southwest of England. This ambitious project involves replacing Legacy Huawei equipment with Open RAN, , multivendor 4G and 5G solutions from multiple vendors.

This is part of Vodafone’s multi-year strategy to eliminate high-risk equipment from its network within the government’s designated timeline. The UK government made the bold move to ban the use of Huawei 5G equipment back in 2020 and handed down a directive to telecom operators: remove all existing Huawei products by 2027.

Vodafone, a pioneer in this domain, has been collaborating with industry experts for several years, focusing on the evolution of open RAN equipment and conducting extensive trials.

After validating the technology in laboratories, it deployed open RAN in rural locations, before beginning a multi-site deployment project in a pair of English towns.

Now the rollout has begun in the county of Devon, using: 4G and 5G radios (including 64T64R massive MIMO units) as well as virtual RAN software from Samsung Networks; Wind River’s Studio cloud network platform; PowerEdge servers from Dell Technologies; general purpose processors (GPUs), acceleration hardware and network interface cards from Intel; and multiple pre-deployment and drive test systems from Keysight Technologies. Also, Capgemini has been Vodafone’s main Open RAN test partner in its labs.

Vodafone claimed KPIs demonstrated the performance of open RAN exceeded that of legacy equipment in the majority of areas, including 4G,5G call rates, and download/upload data rates across multiple spectrum frequencies.

Vodafone said, “Not only can Open RAN lower the barrier for entry for alternative suppliers to add greater resilience to  Vodafone supply chain, but this additional competition will also act as a catalyst for innovation, allowing for suppliers to specialise in niche areas as opposed to providing ‘turnkey’ solutions”.

Samsung Networks, which has positioned itself as one of the companies most likely to benefit from mass market Open RAN investments, is also (naturally) enthusiastic about the development. “Now we are witnessing how innovative technologies like Open RAN and vRAN can further bolster 5G capabilities, creating new paths and possibilities for network evolution,” noted Junehee Lee, head of global sales and marketing at the networks business of Samsung Electronics.

Vodafone is certainly the most enthusiastic about Open RAN among the UK’s mobile operators. BT sees only niche opportunities in the near term, while Virgin Media O2 has announced only a limited initial rollout .

Don’t miss our 5G Open RAN Training to learn more about this cutting edge technology.