Vodafone and Ericsson Sign 5-Year European RAN Deal

Vodafone selected Ericsson as its exclusive RAN partner across Ireland, the Netherlands, and Portugal. The five-year deal is set to modernize the operator’s networks using the Swedish vendor’s programmable network offerings. The deal also includes terms to maintain Ericsson’s major vendor status for Vodafone’s operations in Germany, Romania, and Egypt.

Vodafone stated the modernization of its RAN infrastructure and management will lay the foundation for widespread deployment of standalone 5G, as well as deploying Ericsson’s open RAN-compatible Massive MIMO radios and RAN compute solutions. The vendor will also use 5G-Advanced RAN software capabilities across networks in the markets.

The pan-European deal further introduces Ericsson Intelligent Automation Platform and several AI-powered rApps, which will be deployed market-by-market to deliver automated RAN optimization, energy efficiency, and multi-vendor network management capabilities. Germany will be the first to benefit from rApps and multi-vendor RAN management, with work beginning at the end of 2025.

As well as modernizing network infrastructure with the latest equipment and 5G-Advanced capabilities, this partnership would lay the groundwork to capitalize on the emerging market for network APIs through venture Aduna. The deal with Ericsson follows an open RAN partnership with Samsung covering multiple European countries, announced earlier this month.