Samsung Electronics announced that the company will conduct 4G and 5G trials with Virgin Media O2. The companies will verify the capability and performance of Samsung’s 4G and 5G network equipment in O2’s commercial network and assess the interoperability between Samsung’s latest products and the UK operator's 2G and 3G legacy networks.
For the trial, Samsung will provide its baseband unit, 5G Massive MIMO radios, as well as 4G radios on both low-band and mid-band spectrums. These products are Open RAN compliant with some configuration changes and additional support in the future, Samsung said.
O2 launched its 5G network already in 2019, using equipment from Ericsson and Nokia. More recently it selected Ericsson to build a standalone core. The trials with Samsung support efforts in the UK to diversify network suppliers in the name of increased security, as well as the industry push for more open networks based on products from multiple vendors.
