The global telecom industry has reached a significant milestone as Samsung Electronics successfully completed what it describes as the first commercial call using virtualized radio access network (vRAN) technology on a live Tier-1 U.S. operator network. The achievement signals a shift from laboratory testing to real-world deployment and strengthens the case for cloud-native, software-driven mobile infrastructure as the foundation of next-generation wireless networks.
The commercial call was powered by Samsung’s cloud-native vRAN software running on Intel Xeon 6700P-B processors, hosted on a commercial off-the-shelf server from Hewlett Packard Enterprise and supported by the Wind River cloud platform. While Samsung did not disclose the participating operator, the test took place on a live commercial network, marking a decisive step toward large-scale adoption.
From Lab Success to Live Network Reality
This achievement builds directly on a 2024 laboratory milestone, when Samsung demonstrated an end-to-end vRAN call using Intel’s Xeon 6 system-on-chip in a controlled environment. Moving from the lab to a live network is critical for telecom operators, as it proves that software-based RAN architectures can meet carrier-grade requirements for performance, latency, reliability, and energy efficiency.
According to Samsung, the successful call confirms that single-server, software-driven architectures are now capable of handling workloads traditionally spread across multiple pieces of specialized hardware. This transition brings mobile networks closer to the flexibility and scalability long associated with cloud computing.
Why vRAN Matters for Telecom Operators
Virtualized RAN represents a fundamental shift in how mobile networks are built and operated. Instead of running baseband and radio processing on proprietary hardware, vRAN separates the software from the hardware and runs network functions on general-purpose servers.
For operators, this offers several strategic advantages:
- Greater flexibility in deploying and scaling network capacity
- Reduced reliance on single-vendor hardware ecosystems
- Faster introduction of new features and services
- Lower total cost of ownership through hardware consolidation
By virtualizing RAN functions, operators can treat the network more like a software platform, enabling automation, remote management, and dynamic optimization.
Cost, Energy, and Operational Efficiency Gains
Samsung emphasized that its single-server vRAN approach allows operators to consolidate multiple workloads—radio access, mobile core functions, transport, and security—onto fewer physical servers. This consolidation reduces site complexity and power consumption, which is increasingly important as networks expand to support higher data volumes and denser deployments.
Energy efficiency has become a top priority for telecom providers, both to cut operating expenses and to meet sustainability targets. Fewer servers, combined with more powerful processors and intelligent workload management, can significantly reduce the energy footprint of mobile networks.
AI-Ready Networks and the Road to 6G
Another major implication of the milestone is AI readiness. Samsung positioned its vRAN architecture as a platform capable of running AI workloads alongside traditional RAN processing. This opens the door to advanced capabilities such as:
- AI-driven traffic optimization
- Predictive maintenance
- Automated fault detection
- Real-time performance tuning
These features are expected to play a central role in the evolution of 5G Advanced and the eventual transition to 6G. By proving that AI workloads can coexist with RAN processing on the same infrastructure, Samsung is aligning today’s deployments with long-term network roadmaps.
June Moon, executive vice president and head of R&D for Samsung’s Networks Business, said the demonstration confirms real-world readiness and highlights how software-driven networks can deliver both sustainability and performance while laying the groundwork for future generations of wireless technology.
The Role of Intel’s Xeon 6 Platform
At the heart of the deployment is Intel’s Xeon 6 system-on-chip, featuring up to 72 cores, Intel Advanced Matrix Extensions, and Intel vRAN Boost. Intel says these capabilities deliver major improvements in AI processing, memory bandwidth, and power efficiency compared with previous generations.
For telecom workloads, this means higher throughput, lower latency, and the ability to support more users and services on fewer servers—key requirements for dense urban 5G deployments and enterprise applications.
Industry Perspective: From Concept to Deployable Innovation
Industry analysts see the commercial call as a turning point. Daryl Schoolar of Recon Analytics noted that the demonstration moves vRAN from theoretical performance claims to deployable innovation. By running multiple network functions on next-generation processors in a live environment, Samsung is illustrating what future networks will look like: cloud-native, scalable, and significantly more efficient.
This shift also aligns telecom infrastructure more closely with data center economics, where software upgrades and hardware refresh cycles are faster and more cost-effective than traditional telecom rollouts.
Samsung’s Growing vRAN and Open RAN Footprint
Samsung’s vRAN progress is not happening in isolation. The company has built a strong track record with major global operators:
- Verizon was the first carrier to deploy Samsung’s vRAN solutions in early 2021 as part of its nationwide 5G Ultra Wideband rollout, later integrating massive MIMO radios for C-Band expansion.
- Orange France worked with Samsung to complete the first 4G and 5G calls on a virtualized and Open RAN network in southwestern France.
- Vodafone selected Samsung as a primary partner for large-scale Open RAN and vRAN deployments across Germany and other European markets, covering thousands of sites over the coming years.
These deployments underscore Samsung’s growing influence in reshaping how mobile networks are designed and deployed worldwide.
A Broader Shift in Telecom Architecture
The successful commercial vRAN call highlights a broader industry trend: telecom networks are converging with cloud infrastructure. Operators increasingly view vRAN, Open RAN, and AI-driven architectures as essential tools to manage rising data demand, control costs, and remain competitive.
As networks become more software-defined, innovation cycles accelerate, vendor ecosystems expand, and operators gain greater control over how and where they deploy capacity.
Samsung’s completion of a live commercial vRAN call represents more than a technical milestone—it marks a strategic inflection point for the telecom industry. By demonstrating that cloud-native RAN can operate reliably under real network conditions, Samsung and its partners are accelerating the transition toward software-defined, AI-enabled, and future-ready mobile networks.
As operators worldwide evaluate their 5G evolution and early 6G strategies, milestones like this one suggest that the era of flexible, scalable, and cost-efficient RAN architectures is no longer theoretical—it has arrived.
