In the trial Samsung will place its vRAN solution in TPG Telecom’s innovation lab in Glebe, NSW.
Additionally, Samsung’s latest 5G mmWave product Compact Macro will be deployed in the wider Glebe area.
The announcement follows the launch of Samsung’s Networks Business in Australia in April 2021. The company says it has been exploring the delivery of Samsung’s leading 5G mmWave technologies to the nation.
TPG Telecom operates the Vodafone brand in Australia. Recently, TPG Telecom invested AU$108 million to acquire spectrum in all available licence areas in the 26GHz band. Samsung comment that with abundant mmWave spectrum, TPG Telecom will be able to offer high speed data services and immersive use cases for its mobile and home users. TPG Telecom’s extensive fibre assets combined with a network of small cells will enable the deployment of vRAN architecture.
For the trial, Samsung will provide its Compact Macro and vRAN solution. Samsung’s latest 5G Compact Macro brings together a baseband, radio and antenna in a single form-factor. Samsung say the compact and lightweight solution can be easily installed on the sides of buildings, as well as on utility poles, for the swift build-out of 5G networks. Samsung’s commercial vRAN solution is built on the company’s independently developed stack, and runs on commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) servers.
Samsung says it has commercially deployed its vRAN solution in wide scale for global Tier 1 operators’ networks in markets outside of Australia, and recently expanded its capability to support 3.5GHz Massive MIMO radio.
Samsung say their 5G vRAN on mmWave is already commercially deployed in global markets, including Japan, Korea and the U.S. and has the capacity to support multi-gigabit speeds.
TPG Telecom CEO Iñaki Berroeta said, “We are very pleased to partner with Samsung as part of our new Innovation Lab to drive product and technology innovation by trialing virtualisation,” said, CEO at.
“Deploying mmWave spectrum on our 5G network together with vRAN architecture will allow us to develop exciting 5G use cases for industry verticals and enable the delivery of even faster speeds and greater capacity for our customers.”
Samsung Electronics executive vice president head of global sales & marketing networks business Woojune Kim said “Samsung is excited to begin this trial with TPG Telecom powered by our innovative 5G vRAN solution and latest integrated 26GHz mmWave product, which will be the first in Australia.
“Through a combination of our powerful 5G solutions and ongoing efforts in 5G development, Samsung looks forward to helping TPG Telecom gain the full benefits of 5G to reshape the value of mobile experiences for users and enterprises.”
It is good to see Samsung back in the mobile infrastructure business in Australia. The last success they had in this region was, I believe, the Hutchison CDMA Network launched under the Orange brand back in late 1999. Samsung will bring some much needed competition to the two dominant incumbents Nokia and Ericsson.
