The CTO’s Choice Award is selected by a panel of industry experts comprised of 21 CTOs from leading mobile network operators around the globe. Chosen among the six winners in the Best Mobile Technology category — recognizing distinguished leaders in networks and technology — this is the highest recognition at the prestigious industry awards and a top honor in the global telco industry.

“We are honored that Samsung Networks’ fully-virtualized 5G RAN was recognized as the supreme champion with the CTO’s Choice Award, representing our dedicated efforts in network advancement,” said Junehee Lee, Executive Vice President and Head of R&D, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics. “Samsung believes vRAN is a powerful enabler for network transformation and will pave the path towards next-generation networks. As a global leader in virtualization with successful commercialization experiences, we continue to lead the journey, redefining what is possible for 5G network innovation.”

“In one of the most fiercely contested categories in the GLOMOs, the judges felt that the Samsung entry showed innovation in one of the most exciting parts of the market,” said Shaun Collins, Chair of the Judges, GLOMO Awards (Executive Chairman, CCS Insight). “It was clear the 21 carrier CTOs also thought that and selected Samsung’s entry for the prestigious CTO Choice Award this year.”

This award is backed by Samsung’s commercial track record of vRAN deployments in wide-scale in North America, Europe and Asia. Samsung delivered its 5G vRAN solutions for a large-scale commercial network service in the United States that launched in December 2020, providing reliable mobile services to millions of users. The company was also the world’s first in commercializing 5G 64T64R Massive MIMO radios on 5G vRAN using C-band spectrum (3.5GHz).

With a fully disaggregated architecture, Samsung’s vRAN runs on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) servers, offering features and performance that are equivalent to traditional hardware-based equipment. The company’s vRAN brings reliability, scalability and flexibility to mobile operators’ networks.

For detailed information on Samsung’s vRAN and Open RAN leadership, please refer to the recent announcement.

Samsung has pioneered the successful delivery of 5G end-to-end solutions including chipsets, radios and core. Through ongoing research and development, Samsung drives the industry to advance 5G networks with its market-leading product portfolio from fully virtualized RAN and Core to private network solutions and AI-powered automation tools. The company is currently providing network solutions to mobile operators that deliver connectivity to hundreds of millions of users around the world.

Samsung is the global leader in the fully-virtualized 5G RAN market.¹ The company’s achievement was driven by its 5G vRAN solution, which has been deployed around the world, making Samsung the only major network vendor to have delivered fully-virtualized commercial RAN deployments in North America, Europe and Asia.

Samsung delivered its 5G vRAN solutions for a large-scale commercial network service in the U.S. that launched in December 2020, providing reliable mobile services to millions of users. The company continues to expand its 5G vRAN footprint, with recent milestones including:

• Achieved 2.25Gbps on a single user device with dual connectivity using vRAN and Massive MIMO radios on C-band spectrum in June 2021
• Successfully launched commercial vRAN over C-band using 64T64R Massive MIMO radios in the U.S. in January 2022
• Switched on the UK’s first 5G Open RAN site and the world’s first 5G Standalone (SA) Open RAN site in Japan — both powered by Samsung’s vRAN

Samsung’s commercially-proven network solutions range from traditional RAN to virtualized RAN to Open RAN — supporting operators’ 5G path of choice. To advance virtualization and openness, Samsung’s 5G vRAN splits the baseband functions into a fully disaggregated virtualized Distributed Unit (vDU) and virtualized Central Unit (vCU). The key to this disaggregated architecture is that the RAN software is separated from customized hardware and runs on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) servers. Samsung’s vRAN also supports O-RAN specifications, “opening up” interfaces between baseband unit and radios, allowing integration from different vendors.

“While many vendors claim they support Open RAN by starting with the RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC), in reality, this is still far from commercialization in large-scale networks and sidesteps the most important part of the Open RAN revolution — which starts from the disaggregation of hardware and software in the baseband, and also involves opening of the fronthaul,” said Woojune Kim, Executive Vice President, Head of Global Sales & Marketing, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics.

Samsung’s vRAN solution fully disaggregates the hardware and software in the baseband, and can support the open fronthaul interface. The company’s O-RAN compliant 5G vRAN solutions are deployed commercially in Japan and U.K. networks, offering seamless integration with other vendors’ radios.

Added Kim: “What differentiates Samsung is a combination of consistent innovation and large-scale commercial experience with leading Tier One operators around the world. This has helped us lead the advancement of vRAN and Open RAN beyond lab tests and field trials, and into major commercial markets. Now, the creation of this vRAN ecosystem will drive innovation to the next level, unlocking numerous opportunities ahead for network industry players and helping operators scale their businesses.”

Innovating Together for Success

As a pioneer and leader in vRAN technology, Samsung has brought together various companies for collaboration in this ecosystem — starting with Dell, HPE, Intel, Red Hat and Wind River. Samsung has tested and validated interoperability with each company platform, which collectively holds a comprehensive view of the network evolution at every step of the development process. The ecosystem will help in the preparation for commercial deployments, including conducting various activities in Samsung’s lab — aligning solution roadmaps from multiple vendors, fostering a fully interoperable approach to vRAN and leading the design process of an end-to-end vRAN solution.

Companies joining this vRAN ecosystem include:

Dell Technologies

Dell Technologies’ telecom solutions bolster the open ecosystem and help communications service providers (CSPs) transform to cloud-native vRAN networks. Samsung’s vRAN solution, combined with Dell’s carrier-grade, telecom infrastructure, will help CSPs around the globe to affordably build and deploy open networks. Dell’s global supply chain and telecom services seamlessly support network deployments of any scale.

Dennis Hoffman, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Dell Technologies Telecom Systems Business said, “Samsung’s commitment to advancing the vRAN ecosystem will foster new innovative services and business opportunities for communications service providers and enterprises. Our collaboration with Samsung and other partners is helping to develop an open ecosystem of technologies that can deliver the performance and reliability network operators demand.”

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

HPE continues a legacy of over 30 years of experience in the telecom industry. More than 300 telco customers across 160 countries take advantage of HPE’s open telco solutions, offered through the HPE Communications Technology Group (CTG), to evolve to a 5G ready, cloud-native, service-based architecture. As the global edge-to-cloud company, HPE’s experience in enterprise IT and hybrid cloud helps deliver a cloud transformation and secure, carrier-grade, standards-based infrastructure to telecommunications networks.

Phillip Cutrone, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Global OEM & Service Providers, at HPE said, “HPE looks forward to continuing our longstanding collaboration with Samsung by welcoming a new opportunity to deliver optimized 5G solutions for our customers. By using HPE ProLiant servers, the world’s trusted servers, to deliver highly dense, small form factor RAN workload-optimized compute platforms, HPE is playing a pivotal role in enabling the Samsung vRAN ecosystem that will further advance 5G experiences.”

Intel

Samsung has teamed up with Intel to support global service providers in virtualizing their 5G RAN and driving new services innovation based on Intel Xeon Scalable processors. Samsung recently announced the deployment of its fully virtualized, cloud-native vRAN solution to support the UK’s first 5G Open RAN network, as well as 5G vRAN in Japan. Both Intel and Samsung have optimized their solutions to deliver outstanding virtualized performance and flexibility to meet service provider requirements around the world.

Cristina Rodriguez, Vice President and General Manager, Wireless Access Network Division at Intel said, “The shift to virtualized RAN is one of the biggest transformations impacting the industry today. Intel’s collaboration with Samsung illustrates the strength of software-defined solutions in delivering flexibility and scalability in real world deployments.”

Red Hat

Red Hat is collaborating with Samsung to deliver 5G network solutions built on Red Hat’s proven open hybrid cloud portfolio, including Red Hat OpenShift – the industry’s most comprehensive enterprise Kubernetes platform. With this collaboration, Samsung and Red Hat are helping service providers drive 5G adoption and realize the benefits of vRAN. Samsung’s 5G vRAN solutions coupled with Red Hat’s open source, cloud-native solutions aim to extend 5G-based use cases by supporting consistent horizontal platforms from the core to the edge for customers to more easily deploy vRAN.

Darrell Jordan-Smith, Senior Vice President, TME & Industries at Red Hat said, “Red Hat is committed to building a bridge for customers to embrace RAN transformation, connecting business needs with the underlying technologies through an open ecosystem of partners. At the heart of the 5G and RAN evolution is cloud-native, open source innovation that helps form the foundation for future connectivity. Samsung’s leading 5G network solutions powered by Red Hat hybrid cloud technology offers service providers and their customers a flexible, scalable and reliable solution to successfully implement RAN at the edge, improving business agility to respond to opportunities more rapidly.”

Wind River

Wind River Studio provides a fully cloud-native, Kubernetes- and container-based architecture, based on open source, for the development, deployment, operations and servicing of distributed edge networks at scale. It delivers a foundation for a geographically distributed managed solution able to simplify Day 1 and Day 2 operations by providing single-pane–of-glass (SPoG), zero-touch automated management of thousands of nodes, no matter their physical location. Studio addresses the complex challenges of deploying and managing a physically distributed, cloud-native vRAN infrastructure to provide traditional RAN performance in a vRAN deployment.

Avijit Sinha, Chief Product Officer, Wind River said, “A leader in the early 5G vRAN landscape, Wind River is delivering mature production-ready offerings with Samsung based on proven Wind River Studio technology that is live in deployment with Tier One operators. Together with Samsung, Wind River can provide flexible, secure, reliable and ultra-low latency solutions that extend across the 5G cloud core and edge to support new use cases in an increasingly intelligent systems world.”

Samsung continues to expand its ecosystem with additional partners with industry-leading expertise in order to meet operator needs for more flexible and scalable networks.

¹ Based on internal analysis of third-party market size estimates

In June 2021, the companies announced that Vodafone UK selected Samsung as a leading vendor to support a wide-scale 5G commercial deployment based on an Open RAN architecture powered by vRAN in Europe.

“Open RAN can radically evolve the telecoms industry, and we are excited to champion the technology in the UK,” said Andrea Dona, Chief Network Officer, Vodafone UK. “This is an ecosystem which is only a few years old but the progress we have made so far is quite remarkable. Not only have we begun the first scaled deployment in the UK, but we have also installed the first 5G Open RAN site. Open RAN is now a real-world technology and it is truly exciting to see this technology flourish.”

“Samsung is proud to collaborate with Vodafone UK to switch on the UK’s first 5G Open RAN site,” said Thomas Riedel, Head of Samsung Networks Europe at Samsung Electronics. “This will help deliver the benefits of our carrier-grade 5G vRAN solutions to millions of Vodafone UK customers. Through our accumulated commercial 5G vRAN experience with leading operators across major markets globally, we look forward to pushing the boundaries of technological innovation and supporting the 5G journey across Europe.”

In the coming months, Vodafone and Samsung will be testing Samsung vRAN’s telco-grade performance metrics and features, such as security, inter-Radio Access Technology (inter-RAT) mobility and inter-frequency handover, as well as ensuring compliance with Open RAN specifications. Samsung’s fully virtualized, software-based RAN runs on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) servers, offering features and performance that are equivalent to traditional hardware-based equipment. Using a cloud-native and container-based architecture, the company’s vRAN enables more flexible deployments and network management efficiencies for mobile operators, while helping them meet the demands of deploying new and existing services.

The companies will also test other advanced network technologies that leverage both LTE and 5G technologies to help enhance mobile user experiences. This includes Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS), which assigns time-frequency resources based on traffic demands to accommodate users of both LTE and 5G in the same frequency band, and E-UTRAN New Radio Dual Connectivity (EN-DC), which boosts 5G speeds, reliability and coverage by combining the resources of 4G and 5G networks. Testing will occur in the first half of 2022.

Samsung has pioneered the successful delivery of 5G end-to-end solutions including chipsets, radios and core. Through ongoing research and development, Samsung drives the industry to advance 5G networks with its market-leading product portfolio from fully virtualized RAN and Core to private network solutions and AI-powered automation tools. The company is currently providing network solutions to mobile operators that deliver connectivity to hundreds of millions of users around the world.

“Viettel has continued to prioritize building 5G infrastructure in key areas of the city,” said Tao Duc Thang, Deputy General Director from Viettel. “Viettel will join hands to make smart city development in Da Nang more synchronous and modern, to connect broadband in multi-dimensional and safe ways, ensuring best network infrastructure for digital government development, supporting for business and growth of Da Nang.”

With the main mission to build a digitalized society, Viettel has built 4G telecommunications infrastructure covering 97% of the Vietnamese population. The company also pioneers in providing the first 5G service in Vietnam. Up to now, 11 provinces/cities of Vietnam have 5G Viettel coverage (including Hanoi, Bac Ninh, Bac Giang, Vinh Phuc, Dong Nai, Ho Chi Minh City, Ba Ria–Vung Tau, Binh Phuoc, Thua Thien–Hue and Da Nang). People in these areas can experience 5G for free with unlimited capacity, on many 5G support devices. The 5G Viettel network in the above areas has a stable data download speed of 600-700 Mbps, the highest of up to more than 1Gbps.

For the commercial trial in Da Nang, Samsung provided its latest 4G and 5G solutions, which include its baseband unit as well as 64T64R Massive MIMO radios and radios on mid-band spectrum. Samsung’s latest baseband unit offers improved performance with industry leading capacity and throughput, while supporting both 4G and 5G technologies. The company’s 64T64R 5G Massive MIMO radio has the capability to power highly-congested and populated areas, delivering increased coverage and data speeds for enhanced 5G end-user experiences.

“We are excited to work with Viettel to bring immersive and reliable 5G services to consumers, and demonstrate Samsung’s technical leadership in Vietnam. This trial marks a big first step for the two companies’ collaborative efforts in Vietnam,” said Ho Chi Dung, Vice President, Network Business, Samsung VINA. “We look forward to supporting Viettel with a network that is ready to unlock the future of mobile connectivity in Vietnam, and that brings a new level of 5G experiences to the country’s increasing number of mobile users.”

Samsung has pioneered the successful delivery of 5G end-to-end solutions including chipsets, radios and core. Through ongoing research and development, Samsung drives the industry to advance 5G networks with its market-leading product portfolio from fully virtualized RAN and Core to private network solutions and AI-powered automation tools. The company is currently providing network solutions to mobile operators that deliver connectivity to hundreds of millions of users around the world.

To power immersive mobile experiences in 5G, Samsung has introduced advanced 5G solutions that include new baseband units and radios. Among these 5G radios, Massive Multi-Input Multi-Output (MIMO) radios are one of the most attractive options for mobile operators looking to deploy or enhance their 5G networks. The massive MIMO radio is a breakthrough solution that is equipped with a lot of antennas for better coverage and more capacity than a radio. As 5G networks continue to expand around the world using mid-band spectrum, 5G Massive MIMO radios with hundreds of antennas are commonly deployed in the market to help handle the growth in mobile data traffic.

To develop these powerful 5G Massive MIMO radios, numerous tests must be conducted to inspect the products for performance and reliability. One of the tests is conducted at a special facility called an anechoic chamber. Samsung Electronics has several anechoic chambers that are used to analyze and test the antenna performance of its radios. Recently, the company opened a large anechoic chamber at its Digital City campus in Suwon, Korea in order to enhance its ability to introduce more advanced and compelling 5G solutions to its customers.

Testing in Anechoic Chambers

The term “anechoic” comes from “an-echoic”, meaning non-echoing or non-reflective in Greek. As its name suggests, this room can emulate a non-reflective environment by using special walls and ceiling and floor designs to completely absorb all reflected electromagnetic waves. This is extremely important since even a small electromagnetic wave can disrupt an accurate antenna measurement. The interior walls are built with a number of absorbers that have a pyramid shape and help to minimize interference in the shielded room. This concept is very similar to how a stealth aircraft evades radar detection by absorbing and scattering radar signals.

The chamber’s interior is also equipped with a parabolic reflector. This reflector is used to collect radio waves from a generator and re-project the waves to the 5G radios placed inside the chamber. By collecting and re-projecting the waves at different angles, the parabolic reflector can simulate long distances, making it seem as though the 5G radio were transmitting radio waves to a mobile device from a far-off location. While the size of the chamber is relative to the simulated distance, Samsung’s chambers can simulate a distance of as much as hundreds of kilometers, creating what is called a “far field condition”. To measure the accuracy of radio performance, the size of the chamber is critical.

The newly added non-reflective chamber in Samsung’s Digital City is the size of a basketball court. Beneath the reflector, the engineer looks as small as an insect!

Samsung’s anechoic chambers are also able to cover a wide range of spectrum across low, mid and high-bands. This is especially useful in evaluating 5G radio performance since 5G spans various spectrum bands. Specifically, Samsung’s facilities have the ability to test mmWave antennas, which power high-capacity 5G mobile services. The mmWave spectrum is not used in 4G technology but is crucial to supporting immersive 5G use cases due to its wide-bandwidth.

By enabling tests to be conducted using a range of spectrum, the data sets collected in this way will help Samsung’s engineers verify and analyze a very high number of radio patterns. Based on the findings, engineers are able to refine and improve 5G radio performance to deliver best-in-class solutions for mobile services.

“We are extending our capabilities by developing powerful 5G solutions with the newly added anechoic chamber,” said Seunghwan Yoon, Vice President and Head of the RF Lab at Samsung Electronics’ Networks Business. “With vigorous quality control and verification processes, we look forward to bringing the full benefits of cutting-edge 5G solutions to more users for immersive mobile experiences.”

Better, More Powerful and Reliable 5G Solutions

The establishment of anechoic chambers is part of Samsung’s ongoing efforts to provide superior, reliable 5G solutions that deliver ultra-fast connectivity to users. These chambers help Samsung develop innovative antenna systems tailored to advanced 5G solutions in a wide array of spectrum bands. By leveraging a range of tools and facilities like anechoic chambers, Samsung looks forward to delivering leading-edge 5G solutions that offer consumers and enterprises around the globe new and immersive mobile experiences.

For this collaboration, Samsung will supply its commercial vRAN solutions and O-RAN compliant radios, covering both low-band and mid-band spectrum. The company’s fully virtualized RAN is software-based and runs on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) servers, offering features and performance that are equivalent to traditional hardware-based equipment. Using a cloud-native and container-based architecture, Samsung’s vRAN enables more flexible deployments and efficiency in network management for mobile operators.

Among the key benefits of the revolutionary architecture is its automation capabilities, which simplify end-to-end network management. With Samsung’s vRAN, operators can quickly meet the evolving demands of new and existing services with minimal impact on deployment. Samsung will also deliver to Vodafone UK its market leading O-RAN compliant 5G radios, including the latest Massive MIMO radios.

“Vodafone is committed to leading the next wave of digital transformation across Europe, ensuring fast and reliable connectivity for all,” said Johan Wibergh, Chief Technology Officer, Vodafone. “Open RAN, built on strong partnerships, is key to realizing this ambition. Samsung’s innovative solutions and expertise are part of the foundation that is creating this network of the future.”

This collaboration with Vodafone marks a first for Samsung, as the company brings its cloud native virtualized RAN technology to a leading operator’s network in Europe. As acknowledged by many in the industry, virtualized RAN and O-RAN technologies will be important to helping evolve network architectures to power the next generation of 5G applications and services. To this end, Samsung has been continuously leading in vRAN innovation, most recently showing the capability to support the multi-gigabit speeds of Massive MIMO radios on COTS servers (Link).

“We are proud that this collaboration with Vodafone—one of the premier carriers in the world—will be the first scaled deployment of our pioneering 5G technologies in Europe, including vRAN and O-RAN,” said Paul Kyungwhoon Cheun, President and Head of Networks Business at Samsung Electronics. “This is a major step forward, as more operators are transitioning into new RAN technologies to prioritize user experience and efficiency. We look forward to continue leading the way in 5G innovation to meet our customer’s highest standards of performance, functionality and reliability.”

Samsung has pioneered the successful delivery of 5G end-to-end solutions including chipsets, radios, and core. Through ongoing research and development, Samsung drives the industry to advance 5G networks with its market-leading product portfolio from fully virtualized RAN and Core to private network solutions and AI-powered automation tools. The company is currently providing network solutions to mobile operators that deliver connectivity to hundreds of millions of users around the world.

About Vodafone

Vodafone is a leading telecommunications company in Europe and Africa. We are the largest mobile and fixed network operator in Europe and a leading global IoT connectivity provider. Our M-Pesa technology platform in Africa enables over 48m people to benefit from access to mobile payments and financial services. We operate mobile and fixed networks in 21 countries and partner with mobile networks in 49 more. As of 31 March 2021, we had over 300m mobile customers, more than 28m fixed broadband customers, over 22m TV customers and we connected more than 123m IoT devices.

This low-band 5G network is a significant addition to KDDI’s existing 5G services, which already support the mid-band and mmWave spectrums, introducing a wave of new services to more users. With the benefit of these multiple spectrum bands, KDDI can provide reliable connectivity, coupled with high speeds and wider coverage. For the rollout, KDDI selected Samsung’s advanced 5G solutions, including its 700MHz radio and its next-generation indoor and outdoor baseband units.

“We are proud to deliver on our mission of providing advanced 5G services to our customers, leveraging cutting-edge network technologies,” said Toshikazu Yokai, Executive Officer, Chief Director of Mobile Technology at KDDI. “With the support of leading vendors like Samsung, we hope to continue expanding our 5G service areas with the goal of reaching 90 percent population coverage by early next year. We look forward to bringing improved 5G experience to more users.”

“Samsung is delighted to take part in KDDI’s launch of 700MHz 5G, and in delivering enhanced user experience to millions of customers in Japan. We are proud to contribute to Japan’s 5G expansion,” said Sohyong Chong, Senior Vice President and Head of Software R&D, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics. “We look forward to continuing to leverage our network expertise and 5G technology leadership to support KDDI in their 5G strategy and business objectives.”

Samsung has pioneered the successful delivery of 5G end-to-end solutions including chipsets, radios, and core. Through ongoing research and development, Samsung drives the industry to advance 5G networks with its market-leading product portfolio from fully virtualized RAN and Core to private network solutions and AI-powered automation tools. The company is currently providing connectivity to hundreds of millions of users around the world.

About KDDI
KDDI is telecommunication service provider in Japan, offering both mobile and fixed-line communications. With its well-established base of over 58 million customers, and through mobile services and shops offering its “au” brand, KDDI is expanding its services into the “Life Design” business, which includes e-commerce, fintech, nationwide electric power utility services, entertainment and education. With a 60-year history, KDDI is now focusing on creating smart infrastructure through IoT technologies and open innovation with partners and start-up companies in diverse industries. KDDI is accelerating the global growth of its telecommunications consumer business, with operations in Myanmar and Mongolia, and in the global ICT business with the “TELEHOUSE” brand. KDDI (TYO:9433) is listed on the Tokyo stock exchange. http://www.kddi.com/english/

“SaskTel’s deployment of a transformational 5G network will foster continued innovation and support the growth of Saskatchewan’s technology sector,” said Don Morgan, Minister Responsible for SaskTel. “5G technology will deliver new levels of performance and efficiency that will enhance user experience and set the foundation for smart cities, next generation virtual healthcare, immersive education, smart agriculture technology and next level gaming.”

“We are pleased to select Samsung as the sole vendor for our 5G network deployment and we are confident that Samsung’s state-of-the-art 5G technology will deliver robust network capability and exceptional connectivity inherent in their 5G solutions,” said Doug Burnett, SaskTel President and CEO. “The increased speeds, reliability, and capacity that 5G brings will support remote work, virtual health, and distance education, and enable SaskTel’s customers to realize the full capabilities of the latest 5G-ready devices, including the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G.”

“We are excited to collaborate with SaskTel to roll out next generation 5G services within Saskatchewan, further expanding our 5G horizons in Canada with unparalleled 5G network solutions,” said Jeff Jo, President and CEO of Samsung Electronics Canada. “Samsung is looking forward to supporting SaskTel and providing an end-to-end 5G solution exhibiting Samsung’s ongoing global commitment to advancing a new era in 5G expansion.”

Since 2010, SaskTel has invested over $3.0 billion in capital throughout Saskatchewan to bolster its networks and the investment in 5G technology will prepare for the future demand and deliver an exceptional user experience. SaskTel is committed to investing $324 million of capital across Saskatchewan in 2020-21 and over $1.6 billion through to 2025. These investments will ensure that SaskTel customers will continue to enjoy some of the best communication and entertainment services in the world.

About SaskTel

SaskTel is the leading Information and Communications Technology (ICT) provider in Saskatchewan, with over $1.2 billion in annual revenue and approximately 1.35 million customer connections including 637,000 wireless accesses, 296,000 wireline network accesses, 286,000 internet accesses and 112,000 maxTV subscribers. SaskTel and its wholly-owned subsidiaries offer a wide range of ICT products and services including competitive voice, data and Internet services, wireless data services, maxTV services, data centre services, cloud-based services, security monitoring services, advertising services, and international software and consulting services. SaskTel and its wholly-owned subsidiaries have a workforce of approximately 3,600 full-time equivalent employees (FTEs). Visit SaskTel at www.sasktel.com.

Verizon is the first mobile technology company to deploy Samsung’s fully virtualized 5G solutions. In a recent announcement, Verizon shared details on this new virtualized network technology, along with the extension of their 5G network to millions of people in towns and cities across multiple U.S. regions.

Accelerating 5G

Through this collaboration, Samsung and Verizon enable more consumers to experience 5G’s ultra-fast wireless speeds and help more enterprise customers take advantage of the technologies required for digital transformation. In addition to using vRAN to expand 5G’s possibilities, Verizon and Samsung incorporated Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) technology, which Verizon is using in its 5G Nationwide network. DSS enables 4G LTE and 5G services to work simultaneously in the same spectrum band, delivering greater spectrum efficiencies and a smooth customer migration path to 5G.

Samsung vRAN 2.0 provides a software-based architecture that enables simpler, more flexible and more scalable network deployments. Based on Samsung’s fully virtualized 5G RAN technology (launched in July 2020), its vRAN 2.0 solutions will power the next generation of 5G networking capabilities, including the ability to speedily transition capacity to where it’s needed most. It will also support wireless carriers as they expand use of private 5G networks to bring secure 5G indoors.

“Verizon is committed to delivering the most advanced technology in the industry for our customers,” said Bill Stone, Vice President of Planning and Technology for Verizon. “We continue to push the boundaries of innovation in 5G, and deploying virtualization into our network from the core to the far edge is yet another way we are making our network more scalable and programmable to deliver the many promises of 5G.”

5G’s Next Phase: vRAN 2.0

Samsung’s fully virtualized 5G RAN solution takes all of the radio network functions that can be software-enabled and breaks them down into a virtualized Central Unit (vCU) and Distributed Unit (vDU), as well as a range of radio units. 5G vRAN, with its cloud-native, container-based architecture, replaces dedicated baseband hardware with software elements that can be operated on Common Off-The-Shelf (COTS) servers, an advancement over static, hardware-bound networks.

With a vRAN approach, carriers are able to rapidly shift capacity to address customer needs. For business customers, vRAN can drive more efficient access to private 5G networks through easy deployment of baseband software in Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) facilities.

“We are committed to providing reliable, secure, and flexible network solutions that deliver the power of 5G around the world,” said Magnus Ojert, Vice President, Networks Division, Samsung Electronics America. “We believe vRAN’s next phase of innovation will accelerate what’s possible for society, and look forward to collaborating with an industry-leader like Verizon to make 5G a reality for millions in 2021.”

Samsung has pioneered the successful delivery of 5G end-to-end solutions including chipsets, radios, and core network technologies. The company supports 5G commercial services in the world’s leading markets, including Korea, the U.S. and Japan. In addition, the company is rapidly expanding its global footprint to new markets including Canada and New Zealand.

A key goal of the collaboration is to drive innovation that lowers the barrier to entry for deployment of private 5G networks in enterprises—including retail stores, smart factories, and entertainment venues, such as stadiums. Through a cloud-based approach to the market, the companies aim to achieve greater cost efficiencies in 5G deployments.

Full Virtualization: The Key To Accelerating Private 5G Networks

The collaboration highlights key benefits of cloud networks, which can accelerate 5G expansion for enterprises, and help them deploy private 5G networks faster. Implementing fully-virtualized 5G solutions on a cloud platform also enables vast improvements in the scalability and flexibility of networks for mobile operators and enterprises.

“We’re excited to be working with Microsoft to help enterprises transform the way they operate through next-generation communications,” said Wonil Roh, Senior Vice President and Global Head of Product Strategy, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics. “Combining Samsung’s virtualized 5G solutions and Microsoft Azure cloud, we look forward to delivering a best-in-class 5G solution that advances opportunities in the private network sector. Through this collaboration, we will continue to push the boundaries of innovation in 5G and beyond.”

“Microsoft is pleased to work with Samsung to accelerate the deployment of 5G networks in enterprises. The combination of Microsoft Azure and Samsung’s virtualized 5G offerings will enable new solutions and lower the barriers to entry for private 5G networks for our mutual customers across retail, manufacturing, entertainment and many other industries,” said Yousef Khalidi, Corporate Vice President, Azure for Operators, Microsoft Corp.

Samsung is a pioneer in the successful delivery of 5G end-to-end solutions ranging from chipset, radio, and core network. The company has been supporting 5G commercial services in leading markets, including Korea and the U.S., where the majority of the worldwide 5G subscribers are currently located, and it is supporting the expansion of 5G in Japan. In addition, the company is rapidly expanding its global footprint to new markets including Canada and New Zealand.

Samsung Electronics, the world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced plans to expand its NAND flash production capacity in Pyeongtaek, Korea, reinforcing the company’s ability to meet demands from emerging technologies. Construction, which began this May, will pave the way for mass production of Samsung’s cutting-edge V-NAND memory in the second half of 2021.

“The new investment reaffirms our commitment to sustain undisputed leadership in memory technologies, even in uncertain times,” said Cheol Choi, executive vice president of Memory Global Sales & Marketing at Samsung Electronics. “We will continue to serve the market with the most optimized solutions available, while contributing to growth of the overall IT industry and the economy in general.”

In the age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution fueled by artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and 5G expansion, the added capacity will play a major role in helping to address mid- to long-term demands for NAND flash memory. As digital lifestyles become more prevalent, Samsung will continue to be proactive in making new investments in order to seize future market opportunities.

Samsung’s NAND flash production network extends from Hwaseong and Pyeongtaek in Korea to Xi’an, China. Established in 2015, Samsung’s Pyeongtaek Campus is a hub for next-generation memory technologies, consisting of two of the world’s largest-scale production lines.

Leveraging its significant edge in manufacturing and technology, Samsung has held the leadership position in NAND flash memory for the past 18 years, with one recent innovation being the industry-first sixth-generation (1xx-layer) V-NAND introduced last July. Through balanced investment across its global sites, Samsung aims to maintain a robust production network that will further cement its market leadership.

Reference: Samsung V-NAND Mass Production Timeline

Using two test mobile devices, the demonstration achieved approximately 4.3Gbps speeds on each, reaching an industry peak speed of 8.5Gbps across both devices. In order to achieve the speed, two key technologies were used: carrier aggregation and MU-MIMO.

This demonstration highlights the key difference of 5G – its use of mmWave spectrum. The wide bandwidth from mmWave spectrum enables mobile operators to provide multi-gigabit speeds that lower band spectrums are unable to match. With multi-gigabit speeds, users can experience transformational 5G mobile services. Mobile operators will be able to deliver new and rich services such as 8K video streaming, AR remote learning and holistic VR teleconferencing as well as new use cases that are yet to be imagined.

Today, a number of countries – including Japan, South Korea, and the U.S. – have already assigned 5G mmWave spectrum, and two of them have already launched their commercial 5G services using the spectrum. Also, more than 15 nations are expected to join the 5G mmWave club in the coming years.

“Samsung will continue to be at the forefront in advancing 5G mmWave technology,” said Hyunho Park, Senior Vice President, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics. “This successful demonstration proves mmWave’s potential to deliver new kinds of business use cases and open up opportunities for mobile operators. We look forward to building on this significant technical breakthrough to fuel our continuous journey towards an innovative and vibrant mmWave ecosystem.”

Samsung Networks is a pioneer in the successful creation and deployment of 5G end-to-end solutions ranging from chipset, radio, and core network to cloud platform for both mid-band (2.5GHz/3.5GHz) and mmWave (28GHz/39GHz) frequencies. The company has been supporting 5G commercial services in leading markets, including Korea and the U.S., currently two of the largest commercial deployments in 5G subscriber count. It is now also actively supporting the commercial deployment of 5G in Japan. Finally, Samsung is also expanding its global 5G market footprint rapidly to new markets including Canada and New Zealand.