Samsung Networks exited the recent MWC Barcelona 2023 event with significant momentum, bolstered by updates to its 5G-focused virtualized radio access network (vRAN) and open radio access network (RAN) portfolio and deeper collaboration with operators in high-growth markets.

At the event, Samsung announced the latest update to its vRAN platform, new cloud orchestration support, and expansion of open RAN work with European telecom giant Vodafone. Those announcements came on the heels of Samsung providing U.S. operator Dish Network with an initial supply of 24,000 open RAN-compliant radios and 5G vRAN software systems.

Analysts touted Samsung’s vRAN progress. Dell’Oro Group VP Stefan Pongratz noted in a report that Samsung confirmed the performance characteristics of its vRAN platform running at Verizon relative to purpose-built RAN equipment.

“We think we’ve got a significant commercial lead relative to our core competitors on vRAN,” Derek Johnston, head of marketing and 5G business development at Samsung Networks, explained to SDxCentral. He added that while the vRAN market remains “nascent,” Samsung is “very confident in terms of our vRAN platform and our ability to incrementally now turn the crank and offer a lot of different features and functionality.”

Johnston’s “nascent” comment tied into ongoing concerns around the pace at which vRAN, and more specifically open RAN, is being commercially deployed. Operators at the event were cautiously optimistic on both fronts, noting strong ongoing development that is making them more confident in deploying vRAN in commercial networks and ongoing trials with open RAN.

This was highlighted by Samsung’s deal with Vodafone that expanded their work on deploying Samsung’s open RAN products in the United Kingdom, Germany, and Spain.

However, Vodafone was also part of a broader European-based operator quorum that highlighted continued open RAN challenges.

“In Europe, the main factors delaying the open RAN adoption in tier-one operators’ brownfield deployments are existing contractual obligations with regards to traditional network solutions and the challenging financial situation that operators and service providers are currently suffering from,” the operators noted in a white paper. “The latter factor has the potential to restrict operators from planning additional investment in network renewal, and so delay open RAN adoption at scale. New contracts for the next modernization cycle will be the vehicle for the wide-scale introduction of open RAN in the second half of the decade in Europe.”

Samsung’s expanded opportunities with Vodafone are propelling the vendor deeper into what is considered an increasingly lucrative market.

Dell’Oro Group noted in a recent report that the European open RAN market has been slow to develop, but it expects market revenues to top $1 billion by 2027.

“There's a long tail to these things to where the markets or the operators themselves don't move as fast as we would like to and I think one of the prime markets we anticipated more success early on and we're finally starting to see dividends has been in Europe,” Johnston said. “I think that that's an area where we're excited about the prospects and my hope is that we prevail in a lot of those operators that are looking at [open RAN] as an option and look for us for that journey.”

Samsung in its latest earnings release said it expects its network business “to maintain revenue growth by actively responding to new market opportunities, particularly in overseas businesses, and by reinforcing technology leadership in 5G core chips and [vRAN].”

That opportunity could increase as more European countries look to limit the ability for their domestic operator to procure equipment from China-based vendors due to ongoing security concerns.

“To me, Samsung continues to provide the template on how vendors can break into the RAN infrastructure/software market. A company must be patient and well-funded. To gain market share takes time,” Daryl Schoolar, program VP for IDC’s Worldwide Telecommunications division, explained to SDxCentral in an email. “The company already has a good foothold in Asia, and now appears to be applying its U.S. strategy to Europe. This time in Europe the company appears to be using virtual cloud RAN as an entry way to larger commercial relationships.”

One challenge for Samsung could be in scaling to that opportunity. The vendor has been involved in the mobile telecommunications infrastructure space for decades but remains a distant competitor in the traditional RAN market to heavyweights like Ericsson, Nokia, Huawei, and ZTE.

Samsung has been more successful in the much smaller vRAN and open RAN arenas, with the vendor staking an early lead in the nascent market.

Johnston said that Samsung has not attempted to battle those larger RAN vendors head on and instead is interested in working with operators that are starting their next-generation network technology journey.

Dell’Oro Group’s Pongratz noted this plan could be challenged in the near term by the current lull in network capex from those forward-leaning operators.

“Overall we believe Samsung’s slow but steady rise from the low-single digit RAN revenue share in the early 4G days to its now double-digit share outside of China reflects Samsung’s progress with many of the advanced operators outside of its home market,” Pongratz wrote in an email to SDxCentral. “And while its methodical and focused strategy on a few important advanced markets is contributing to its rise, I would also say that this could also present some challenges over the near-term as some of these operators scale back investments. In other words, with North America now comprising such a large portion of its business, one challenge that Samsung will face is to keep the growth going even as the more advanced operators start scaling back. It will be interesting to see if Samsung’s leadership position in open RAN and vRAN combined with its improved status globally can help to diversity its regional RAN mix in 2023/2024.”

Johnston noted that Samsung is aware of market challenges, but remains confident in its ability to continue to grow market share.

“We're pretty bullish and continue to be even though there's a lot of negative discussion out there in terms of markets and stuff like that,” Johnston said. “And in terms of the overall performance and overall RAN space and the outlook, we're pretty pleased.”