Road to Network Cloudification: UK

This is the 3rd post part of the "Road to Network Cloudification" series where the focus is on summarizing the virtualization journey so far, status & 5G related news of some of the major Operators in the region being discussed.

In the earlier articles we have looked at US,Canada & India. In this post we will be looking into UK Region.

Note: As of 21st August, 2020 have started a new post with summary table capturing all regions, the operators from these post and their NFV ecosystem and 5G status. 

URL: https://matelecom.blogspot.com/2020/08/road-to-network-cloudification-summary-table.html  

 

Last Updated: 4th January 2022.

UK

   1. Vodafone UK :

• Virtualization Journey/Status:
• In September 2017, Vodafone group partnered with VMware to setup its vCloud NFV virtual infrastructure management platform including the vSphere server virtualization system and NSX management and security suite in its European countries including UK.
  
• Vodafone updated its strategy in April 2019 to expand from only NFV SDN to establishing Telco Cloud strategy based where vCloud NFV supports Openstack infrastructure as well as Kubernetes. VMware was again tasked with this cloud deployment along with Juniper Networks, Mirantis, and Nuage Networks.
• The solution also deployed Ericsson's packet core on the VMware vCloud NFV for supporting 4G/VoLTE & 5G.
  
• By April 2020. the VMWare vCloud NFV was deployed across 21 of Vodafone's markets and all of its European businesses.
• In June 2020 Mavenir announced that it had completed RCS interconnection with the networks of Telefónica (3 markets), Vodafone(13 markets) and Deutsche Telekom Germany

• 5G News:
  
• In July 2019, Vodafone UK became the second mobile operator in the United Kingdom to launch 5G services on a commercial basis and said it will reach eight million consumers with 5G services by 2021.
  
• 5G launch by Vodafone UK involved use of Cisco's core network and Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia RAN.
  
• Vodafone UK also partnered with O2 & successfully deployed 5G multi-operator radio access network (MORAN) technology.  
  
• Vodafone U.K. switched-on what it claimed was the first live standalone (SA) 5G deployment in the country in July 2020, with a new network built for Coventry University using vendors - Ericsson, MediaTek, OPPO and Qualcomm.
• In August 2020, Vodafone went live with Open Radio Access Network (OpenRAN) 4G site in the U.K., with help from U.S.-based vendor Mavenir at Royal Welsh Showground in Powys, Wale. The software is 5G compatible but only turned on for 4G at this time.
• Vodafone launched a commercial pilot of 5G Standalone service in London, Manchester & Cardiff in June 2021 using Ericsson 5G & focusing on testing new capabilities like network slicing.
  

    2. O2 ( Telefonica UK) :

• Virtualization Journey/Status:
• Telefonica UK's cloud enabled network - Fusion network was built by Juniper Networks and was ready in 2019. O2 intends to use this network for 5G.
  
• O2 also said in Jan 2020 that they will work with Mavenir, DenseAir and WaveMobile to deploy 4G and 5G networks over OpenRAN solutions in dense environments and more isolated rural communities.
• In Feb 2020, O2 selected Mavenir's vIMS solution for VoLTE & VoWifi offerings in the country on Telefonica's NFV platform "UNICA" running on Openstack.
• The UNICA platform will be supporting container workloads as well for 5G.
  
• In June 2020 Mavenir announced that it had completed RCS interconnection with the networks of Telefónica(3 markets), Vodafone(13 markets) and Deutsche Telekom Germany

• 5G News:
• O2 striked a deal with Vodafone UK for 5G networking sharing in July 2019 to speed up deployment and reduce costs.
• By Oct 2019 O2 launched 5G in few cities of UK using Nokia & Ericsson RAN. Also Ericsson's cloud packet core was used in the setup.
• In June 2020, O2 signed deal with Ericsson to continue 5G rollout in the country.
• O2 additionally signed with Ericsson for 5G SA deployment in the country as well in July 2021.
  

  3. EE Limited (BT Group):

• Virtualization Journey/Status:
• In June 2019, BT selected Juniper to provide network cloud infrastructure for EE's Telco Cloud, which will support the operator’s converged services with cloud-based virtual network function.
  
• Further, in July 2019 BT selected Canonical's Openstack as the VIM for the Telco Cloud core network.
• BT's EE also selected Ericsson's Dual-Mode Cloud 5G Core for their next generation 5G core to help run both virtual machines & containerized workloads.
• In Sep 2020, BT signed deal with Nokia for their 5G RAN solution which will make Nokia BT’s largest equipment provider.
• Further, in October 2020, BT also selected Ericsson RAN for its 5G Network.
  

• 5G News:
• EE first tested 5G in their lab in 2017 using Huawei equipment which were available in its setup when BT acquired EE in 2016.
  
• EE was first operator in UK to launch 5G in May 2019 and reached 71 locations by March 2020.  EE's 5G launch involved RAN of Nokia & Huawei while core network from Ericsson & Huawei.
• In October 2021, EE began rollout of 5G via 700Mhz band by switching on "indoor 5G" at more than 50 sites across UK.
  

  4. Three UK:

• Virtualization Journey/Status:
• Three UK decided in 2017 to setup its cloud native core network using Nokia's AirFrame data center, IP routing and network management, Nokia CloudBand(TM), Nuage Networks software defined networking, evolved packet core, IMS, TAS, SBC, Shared Data Layer and security solutions.
• Affirmed Networks and Mavenir are being used as applications for traffic management and messaging respectively running on the Telco cloud core which is based on Red Hat OpenStack.
• Finally, Exfo, Mycom and BMC are being used as Operational Support System solutions for managing the Nokia cloud core and the RAN and IT systems. 

• 5G News:
• Three UK started deploying 5G for home broadband users in August 2019 and planned to launch for smart phone consumers by December 2019.
  
• However it was not able to meet 2019 timeline and actually launched in February 2020 using RAN from Huawei, Nokia & Samsung.
• They claim to be launching UK's fastest 5G network and in August 2021 won Ookla Speedtest Award for UK's fastest 5G network.
  

As per news in July 2020, UK is planning to phase out Huawei as part of its 5G networks.

Disclaimer:

The details presented above is based on data available online.The references used are available on:  https://matelecom.blogspot.com/p/references-road-to-network_19.html