Samsung responded to being left out of VodafoneThree’s recent U.K. 5G buildout, with an assurance it will be included in Vodafone’s wider European open radio access network (open RAN) roll out.

In a note to the media, the South Korea-headquartered firm said it “[respected] VodafoneThree’s decision to consolidate their existing vendor relationships,” referring to Ericsson and Nokia’s $2.7 billion contract win this week to expand and upgrade the British operator’s U.K.-wide 5G standalone (SA)-based network infrastructure.

“The transition has opened significant opportunities for us to expand our presence in Europe as a major vendor awarded in Vodafone’s Spring 6 tender,” Samsung’s spokesperson continued, referring to the mainline Vodafone company’s ambition to refresh its RAN technology at numerous mobile sites across multiple markets.

Specifically, Samsung said the U.K. decision freed it up to support Vodafone’s Open RAN deployment at scale across Europe, alongside fellow Spring 6 winners Nokia and Ericsson, building on recent open RAN deployments with Orange France.

“Samsung will deliver 4G/5G virtualized open RAN, an AI-powered CognitiV Network Operations Suite (automation and AI apps), and SI services – at scale, across multiple countries in Europe. We continue to see open RAN interest and growth across globe including Europe," the vendor added.

From 2021 to 2024, Samsung was the primary open RAN partner for Vodafone UK, prior to Vodafone’s acquisition of Three UK in May of this year.

The deployment was part of a commitment to roll out the technology to 2,500 rural sites in the South West of England and Wales to replace network equipment from China-based and now banned vendor Huawei.

Samsung also supplied hardware components, including massive multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) radios, establishing for Vodafone the multivendor interoperability that is central to the open RAN concept.

While VodafoneThree’s reveal of the Ericsson/Nokia 5G project this week stated “the two partners make up the majority, but not the entirety, of VodafoneThree’s network builds," no mention was made of Samsung nor using its existing open RAN architecture.

In addition, the carrier told TMN in a statement, “We have selected the vendors that will help us build the U.K.’s best network at pace and at scale.”

But this doesn’t mean an end to Vodafone’s open RAN ambitions, with the carrier adding in its statement: “Vodafone has selected a number of strategic partners, including Samsung, Ericsson, and Nokia, to jointly deliver a future-ready network infrastructure covering 15 countries across Europe and Africa. This involves the deployment of open RAN at scale in Europe as a continuation of an established program running for several years, as well as new generation single RAN – the ability to combine multiple technologies at the same mobile base station.”

Open RAN acceptance in the operator market remains a hard sell. Dell’Oro Group recently reported that revenues related to the sale of open RAN equipment plunged last year, while complexity concerns have been raised about the offering concerning interoperability and performance.

Samsung last year garnered a “mainstream” rating from ABI Research in its ranking of the top open RAN vendors.