Samsung Electronics is expanding its influence in the North American region, including Canada and the United States, by leading with its Open RAN solution. The company plans to strengthen its position in the global telecommunications equipment market, which is currently dominated by Huawei, Ericsson, and Nokia, by preempting the Open RAN market, known as next-generation network technology.
According to industry sources on Feb. 19, Samsung Electronics aims to commercialize this year and plans to establish Canada’s first Open RAN virtualized base station in the first half of the year in collaboration with Canadian telecom operator TELUS. For this purpose, Samsung Electronics has decided to provide its latest LTE·5G vRAN (virtualized Radio Access Network) 3.0 software, which was unveiled in February last year.
vRAN has emerged as a core solution in the next-generation telecommunications equipment market as major global telecom operators accelerate the adoption of Open RAN. Open RAN technology aims to eliminate dependency on specific network equipment manufacturers by establishing an open standard wireless access network interface and software.
vRAN is implemented in software form on generic servers instead of hardware for base station access network equipment. This approach allows for the consolidation of data processing functions, which were previously performed at each base station, to one location, improving management efficiency and reducing costs. Samsung Electronics has been supplying telecom operators with vRAN 3.0, which has optimized performance and improved power-saving capabilities, since the first half of last year.
Samsung Electronics and TELUS have already completed vRAN and Open RAN-related tests in some regions of Canada and have also completed the verification of communication performance and reliability of multi-vendor Open RAN technology based on Samsung Electronics’ vRAN solution. Previously, Samsung Electronics entered the Canadian telecommunications equipment market in December 2019 and signed a 5G telecommunications equipment supply contract with TELUS in June of the following year.
Recently, Samsung Electronics also conducted Open RAN compatibility and interoperability tests with Verizon, a major U.S.-based telecom operator. These tests, conducted near Samsung Electronics’ research lab in Dallas, Texas, reportedly utilized Samsung Electronics’ latest telecommunications equipment. In 2021, Samsung Electronics supported the commercialization of Verizon’s first 5G-C band network with its vRAN solution.
The industry views the expansion of the Open RAN ecosystem as an opportunity for Samsung Electronics, a latecomer, to broaden its foothold in the telecommunications equipment market.