Samsung Electronics has continued its virtualized RAN (vRAN) and Open RAN push after it announced the launch of its first commercial site in Germany.

The vendor has paired with German telco O2 Telefónica to launch the site in Landsberg am Lech, Bavaria, providing high-performance and reliable 4G and 5G services to customers.

The two companies signed a joint initiative back in October, with the aim of developing a roadmap for several tests of vRAN and Open RAN technologies. 

Following the trials, O2 Telefónica and Samsung said they are now progressing from lab to field with the launch of this first commercial site.

“We are taking another big step in our Open RAN journey. Together with Samsung, we are utilizing the latest Open RAN technologies in our mobile network," said Mallik Rao, chief technology & information officer of O2 Telefónica.

"On the way to the network of the future, we are integrating new network solutions to provide our customers with outstanding connectivity. Open RAN is a building block that can help us to automate our network, deploy new updates faster, and use network components more flexibly."

According to Samsung, the deployment of the first site came just three months after the initial shipment of 4G and 5G solutions.

Samsung said it has provided its 4G and 5G vRAN 3.0 solution and O-RAN compliant radios supporting low- and mid-bands (700MHz, 800MHz, 1.8GHz 2.1GHz, 2.6GHz, and 3.6GHz), including 64T64R Massive MIMO radios.

In February, Samsung struck an Open RAN deal with Canadian telco Telus, a company it has been supporting with 5G kit since 2020.

Last year, the company supported Dish Wireless' virtualized RAN (vRAN) 5G network launch.

During this year's Mobile World Congress event, Magnus Ojert, senior vice president, networks business, Samsung Electronics America, told DCD that the company wants to become the number one Open RAN vendor in the market.

“With Samsung, when we get into a business, we don't want to be the either the fourth or third best player,” Ojert says. “We ultimately want to be the number one, we want to be the best, or the top vendor in the world.”