Vodafone ‘abandons’ open RAN to accelerate UK network upgrade project

Joe Purnell2026-10-13T13:54:00

Source: VodafoneThree

One of the industry’s most enthusiastic open RAN advocates has walked away from open RAN in the UK, with Chief Network Officer Andrea Donà arguing that regulatory obligations and technology readiness left the operator little choice.

This article includes:

Themes: 5G standalone (5G SA); Merger commitments; Mobile spectrum; Network modernisation; Open radio access network (Open RAN); Radio access network (RAN); Spectrum integration; Spectrum strategy; Vendor consolidation.
Events: VodafoneThree Investor Day.
People: Andrea Donà; Santiago Tenorio.
Geographic: Germany; UK.
Organisations: Beacon; Competition & Markets Authority (CMA); Dell; Ericsson; Huawei; Intel; Mast Database; Mobile Broadband Network Limited (MBNL); Nokia; Ofcom; Samsung; Three UK; Virgin Media O2; Vodacom; Vodafone; VodafoneThree; Wind River.

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