Samsung, Orange Collaborate to Advance 5G Networks

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. has announced the company is one of the first global vendors to participate in the opening of Orange’s Open RAN Integration Center in Paris, France.

In the center, the two companies will collaborate to disaggregate the hardware and software elements of traditional RAN. Samsung’s virtualized RAN (vRAN), which has been proven in the field through commercial deployment with global tier one operators, including the U.S., will be used.

As one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators, Orange provides mobile services to 222 million users in 26 countries including Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. The group plans to deploy O-RAN Alliance-compliant base stations starting with indoor and rural configurations and expand to new deployments in the coming years.

“Open RAN is a major evolution of radio access that requires deeper cooperation within the industry,” said Said Arnaud Vamparys, Senior Vice President of Radio Access Networks and Microwaves at Orange. “With our European peers, we want to accelerate the development of Open RAN solutions that meet our needs. After the publication of common specifications, Orange’s Open RAN Integration Center will support the development and tuning of solutions from a broad variety of actors.”

Samsung’s vRAN solutions can help ensure more network flexibility, greater scalability, and resource efficiency for network operation by replacing dedicated baseband hardware with software elements. Additionally, Samsung’s vRAN supports both low and mid-band spectrums, as well as indoor and outdoor solutions. Samsung is the only major network vendor that has conducted vRAN commercial deployments with tier one operators in North America, Europe and Asia.

“We are pleased to participate in Orange’s innovative laboratory,” said Woojune Kim, Executive Vice President, Head of Global Sales & Marketing, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics. “Through this collaboration, we look forward to taking networks to new heights in the European market, enabling operators to offer more immersive mobile services to their users.”

By opening its Open RAN Integration Center in Châtillon, near Paris, Orange will enable the testing and deployment of networks capable of operating with innovative technologies, which will serve as the backbone of the operator’s future networks. At the center, Samsung and Orange will conduct trials to verify capabilities and performance of Samsung’s vRAN, radio and Massive MIMO radio.

Samsung Networks has pioneered the successful delivery of 5G end-to-end infrastructure solutions including chipsets, radios, and core. Through ongoing research and development, Samsung drives the industry to advance 5G networks with its market-leading product portfolio from fully virtualized RAN and Core to private network solutions and AI-powered automation tools. The company is currently providing network solutions to mobile operators that deliver connectivity to hundreds of millions of users around the world.