Ericsson and VodafoneThree completed a network upgrade claimed to unlock 5G speeds for 50 million people.

Dubbed a world first, the upgrade unified core-level sharing through Ericsson’s deployment of its multi-operator core network (MOCN) technology with VodafoneThree’s existing multi-operator radio access network (MORAN) infrastructure over a multivendor 5G and 4G network.

This effort encompassed 10,000 locations, and reportedly eliminated 16,500-square kilometers of areas that previously had little to no mobile coverage. This allowed up to 28.6 million customers to access VodafoneThree's fastest 5G speeds through the sharing of combined C-band spectrum – mid-band spectrum in the 3.4 GHz-3.8 GHz range – with a total capacity for around 71% of the U.K. population.

The efforts marks a major milestone for the British operator since its formation from last year's $20.3 billion merger between Vodafone and CK Hutchison's Three.

Alongside Nokia, Ericsson would go on to win a $2.7 billion contract from VodafoneThree to expand and upgrade the operator's 5G network infrastructure.

Ericsson's 'easy' MOCN

An Ericsson white paper laid out what was claimed to be "the first time any operator has integrated core and radio sharing at a national scale over a multivendor environment." The Swedish vendor executed a two-phase MOCN strategy: "easy MOCN" and "full MOCN."

The first phase accelerated activation of shared capabilities across priority sites using existing infrastructure to deliver immediate coverage and capacity improvements. These sites were pepper-potted across vendor or grid boundaries to validate multivendor interoperability, mobility, and coexistence at scale.

The next phase then saw progressive spectrum consolidation and site upgrades to enhance overall performance. Performance improvements were backed by comprehensive lab and field validation, KPI-based release gates, automated rollback mechanisms, and strong cross-functional governance across radio, core, transport, and operations.

According to Ericsson, the MOCN rollout initially showed significant increase in data growth on sites from the now-unified Three UK and Vodafone as selected for purpose of fulfilling previous 4G LTE and 5G new radio (NR) coverage gaps. The vendor said that though an increase in 4G LTE and NR coverage for both Vodafone and Three UK users was not a primary driving force behind the MOCN activation, the upgrade has consequently reduced the usage of Three's 3G network and Vodafone's 2G network where MOCN was activated.

“Deploying MOCN technology across a live, multivendor 4G and 5G network at this scale was a world-first – and a genuinely complex engineering challenge that Ericsson was proud to lead," Luca Orsini, head of Ericsson North Europe, noted.

“This world-first network upgrade shows how VodafoneThree is using cutting-edge technology to transform the U.K.’s digital infrastructure," VodafoneThree Chief Network Operator Andrea Donà added. "By unifying core and radio sharing at a national level, while also introducing intelligent orchestration and dynamic capacity management, we’re setting a new benchmark for network performance."