5G

Qualcomm will begin Open RAN testing in Vodafone lab

After 18 months of collaboration with Vodafone, Qualcomm announced it will begin testing its X100 5G RAN accelerator card and its QRU100 5G RAN platform in the Vodafone’s lab in preparation for possible use in the Vodafone network.

Gerardo Giaretta, senior director, product management at Qualcomm Technologies, said in a media briefing that once the two products are validated in Vodafone’s lab, he expects field trials to begin in mid-2023 with commercialization likely to follow in late 2023 or the beginning of 2024.

He also said that once Qualcomm’s open RAN products meet Vodafone’s requirements, they will likely be accepted by other European operators as well.

The two companies announced in April 2021 that they were collaborating on Open RAN reference designs aimed at making it easier for smaller and newer entrants to leverage high-performance silicon needed to support 5G base stations. 

Giaretta said that Qualcomm’s X100 5G RAN accelerator card and the QRU100 5G RAN platform are intended to deliver high performance and low power consumption in Open RAN networks. “We believe we have the best power consumption in the industry across all the vRAN solutions,” he said.

Vodafone has been aggressive with its open RAN goals. The operator said earlier this year that it intends to use open RAN technology in 30% of European networks by 2030. The technology is appealing to the global operator because it said it can make it less dependent upon the large technology suppliers and also reduce the cost of expanding its mobile coverage.