Samsung and Vodafone said on 3 March 2026 they completed validation of a radio access network call using virtualised RAN. The companies said they made the first call using Samsung’s vRAN running on an Intel Xeon 6 SoC platform. The test was carried out in Europe as part of work on cloud-native network architecture and Open RAN. The statement said the project builds on Vodafone’s ongoing Open RAN rollout in Germany. The companies said the validation is intended to support the development of more highly automated networks, including functions linked to the use of AI.
They did not disclose throughput figures or comparative results against existing hardware platforms. No commercial deployment timetable was announced as a direct outcome of the test. The companies said further work will cover additional software development and integration of network components. The statement did not include contract values or the scale of any future hardware purchases.