Indian telco Vodafone Idea revealed on Wednesday that it has been working with Samsung to trial new technologies, including virtualised RAN (vRAN) solutions, in Chennai for its 4G and 5G network.
In a statement, Vodafone Idea said it has in “active discussions” with Samsung regarding vRAN and other technologies as the two companies have carried out non-standalone vRAN architecture trials in Chennai “during the last 12 to 18 months”.
Vodafone Idea said the trials have gone well enough that it extended Samsung deployments to Karnataka and Bihar. The telco added that this deployment played a factor in meeting its minimum rollout requirements for the 5G spectrum it acquired in 2022 for the Chennai, Karnataka and Bihar service circles. Earlier this week, the telco said it had met those obligations for all of the 17 priority circles for which it bought 5G spectrum.
Vodafone Idea’s chief technical officer Jagbir Singh said the cloud capabilities of vRAN can deliver enhanced experience to customers with better TCO. He also said the telco will expand its engagement with Samsung to blend vRAN with traditional RAN deployments to roll out its 5G network and improve performance and customer experience.
“We see a major role ahead for hybrid architecture in delivering the network enhanced capabilities that will push new dimensions in radio architecture,” he said in a statement.
In January, according to ETTelecom, Vodafone Idea CEO Akshaya Moondra told investors during a third quarter earnings call that the telco had been in discussions with various technology partners for its 5G rollout, which he said included implementation of vRAN and Open RAN technologies.
In February, Mavenir said it was in the advanced commercial phase of an Open RAN network pilot deployment for Vodafone Idea to support its 5G rollout. Mavenir said the pilot – which started in September 2023 – covers key launch sites and is currently carrying live commercial traffic ahead of a planned large-scale deployment.