- Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung and Huawei are all getting a piece of the network pie
- Ericsson boasts that it will be Vodafone’s sole RAN vendor nationwide across Ireland, Netherlands and Portugal while maintaining “major vendor” status in Germany, Romania and Egypt
- Germany is set to be one of the largest deployments of open RAN in Europe, with Samsung claiming a sizable part of that business
Vodafone finally named the vendors that are part of its Spring 6 initiative, and the list includes the usual suspects: Ericsson, Huawei and Nokia. But Samsung is also claiming a big kahuna: Germany, which represents the largest network in Vodafone’s portfolio.
Vodafone and Samsung are being coy about the other markets Samsung won, emphasizing that Germany will become one of the largest open RAN deployments in Europe, with Samsung equipping “thousands” of sites.
In fact, the first site is already live in Hannover, and Wismar is set to become the first city to be fully equipped with open RAN in early 2026. After Germany, Samsung will work with Vodafone to continue expanding open RAN in other European markets. Which ones, we don’t know, nor the dollar amount or a more precise number of sites because neither company is revealing details.
“We aim to introduce open RAN at scale, but we are not providing a precise figure at this stage. It will be thousands of sites across Europe, starting with Germany,” a Vodafone spokesperson told Fierce.
This being an open RAN deployment, which implies more than one vendor for the operator to mix and match at their will, Samsung noted that it will be working alongside Dell Technologies (servers), Intel (processors) and Wind River (cloud platform).
Ericsson maintains elite status
Of course, Ericsson is not sitting idle here, with the happy circumstance of the Vodafone announcement arriving on the same day as its Q3 earnings report.
Ericsson emphasized its five-year strategic partnership with Vodafone to modernize its network footprint using Ericsson’s programmable network solutions across “several key markets.” Ericsson will be Vodafone’s sole RAN vendor in Ireland, Netherlands and Portugal, as well as a major provider in Germany, Romania and Egypt.
Germany will be the first market to deploy Ericsson’s Intelligent Automation Platform and AI-powered rApps, with work beginning in the fourth quarter of 2025.
Ericsson will also introduce its Intelligent Automation Platform and a number of AI-powered rApps that will be deployed on a market-by-market basis for automated RAN optimization, energy efficiency and management of the multi-vendor network, according to the Swedish vendor.
Not to be outdone, Nokia maintained its role as one of Vodafone’s strategic partners in Europe and Africa as part of Vodafone’s Spring 6 network investment program. Nokia also was named one of the vendors, alongside Ericsson, for VodafoneThree’s infrastructure project in the U.K.
Vodafone’s choice of vendors for its Spring 6 project has been the subject of conjecture for some time. The project, which involves updating Vodafone’s networks across Europe and Africa over the next five years, was originally announced around 2019 but was delayed by Covid. It’s also been reduced in scope after Vodafone sold off some operations, including in Italy and Spain.
It’s unclear where Huawei fits into all of this. Asked about Huawei's status in Germany and elsewhere, the Vodafone spokesperson confirmed it "remains" but didn't specify exactly where.
Vodafone has a stated vision of using open RAN in 30% of its network by 2030.