Ericsson has emerged as “the primary RAN partner” to Virgin Media O2 in the UK, expanding its footprint in a major national 5G SA upgrade project that appears to come at the expense of Nokia – despite the Finnish firm taking a new multi-year deal besides.
In sum – what to know:
Ericsson majority – Five-year extension positions Ericsson as lead RAN supplier for VMO2, says the Swedish vendor; it has secured most of its latest RAN investment.
Nokia retained – Nokia has also won a multi-year extension, and maintained “primary partner” status, it says; but its talk is just about tech upgrades, without the triumphalism.
Network upgrades – Both deals are part of VMO2’s 2025/26 ‘transformation plan’ for better SA coverage, performance, functionality; plus AI controls, cloud RAN, 5G-A.
Ericsson has stolen business from Nokia as part of a large-scale 5G SA radio access network (RAN) upgrade for Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) in the UK, it seems. Both vendors, old rivals in the mobile space, issued press notices this morning (08:06 and 08:37, March 31) to declare victories in the project. But Ericsson was more bullish about the result. It will “become” the “primary RAN partner” following the deal, it said, extending an existing supply contract for another five years – and also, apparently, expanding it to the extent it will have the “majority” of the carrier’s RAN footprint.
This last part is not quite clear – whether Ericsson will have the “majority” of the extension, or most of everything. Its language might be construed both ways. It stated: “Ericsson will become Virgin Media O2’s primary RAN partner in a five-year partnership extension that will see Ericsson power the majority of the UK service provider’s nationwide UK radio network.” Intentionally or not, it sounds like Ericsson has most of the new upgrade work, leading to a majority share of its whole footprint. Certainly, it has secured the “majority of the radio network-focused element” of the deal.
Reports variously suggest the ratio split is 55/45 in favour of Ericsson, with Nokia taking everything else.
Note: since publishing, Ericsson (with VMO2) has written to dispute the widely-reported 55/45 figure (likely originating here), calling it “factually incorrect”. Ericsson stated: “This figure is false and does not accurately reflect Ericsson’s position as primary vendor under the terms of the new contract.” RCR has responded to ask how Ericsson’s “majority” share of the work, as “the primary vendor”, should be better reflected.
Ericsson has since responded, just that: “Ericsson is the primary partner, and the quoted figure is significantly off.” Also responding, VMO2 stated: “We won’t be sharing specific details, but 55/45 is not a split we recognise.” As it is, then, the precise split with Nokia is unclear – except that Ericsson’s latest PR intervention logically suggests it has taken even more than 55 percent of the new work. But let us continue from where we were yesterday (March 31)…
And so the sense is (was) that Ericsson has rather pushed the narrative – and effectively made a V-sign at its oldest rival. Which will stick in the Finnish craw, for sure.
It was bolder in its valuation of the project, too – worth “several hundred million Euros” across the period, it said. Whatever, the implication, as written, is that Ericsson will take some share from Nokia in the process – despite Nokia also winning business, and so extending “two decades of strategic collaboration” with the UK firm. It might be noted that Virgin Media O2 was formed in 2021, as a 50/50 joint venture in the UK between Liberty Global (Virgin Media) and Telefónica (O2); the former was an MVNO until then, switching between T-Mobile/EE, Vodafone, and finally O2.
For its part, Nokia called it a “major new multi‑year RAN deployment” that extends its position as “one of” the UK operator’s “primary RAN partners”. Where Ericsson mostly put focus on its “significant” / “majority” RAN expansion, Nokia talked almost entirely about its RAN pyrotechnics – its latest AirScale line, including massive MIMO radios, “future‑proof” baseband, “energy‑efficient next‑gen” radio platforms. Plus, they will collaborate on pilots and proofs around “advanced RAN intelligence (AI RAN, presumably), automation, and energy-efficient architectures”.
But then Ericsson said the same, besides – about deployment of a “wide range” of RAN products, including “energy-efficient multi-band” massive MIMO units at new and existing locations. It referenced its AIR 3229 and Radio 4486 products (while we are name-checking AirScale), plus its “AI/ML-based software” and SA “programmability” – to optimize performance and efficiency, and support slicing for differentiated applications and services for enterprises. The partnership is “structured to support” Virgin Media O2’s “evolution” to cloud RAN and 5G-Advanced, it said.
Both Ericsson and Nokia have extended recent renewals with the operator, secured previously as part of a 2025 plan to invest £1.4 billion in 5G SA upgrades in the UK – at a run-rate of £700 million per year, through 2025/26. Ericsson had a strategic “investment tranche” as part of the 2025 work to optimize new spectrum and deployments for the operator, including at sports venues, transport hubs, railways, roads, and rural areas. Nokia had a deal to “continue 5G rollout and modernization”, it said. Virgin Media O2 has over 20,000 macro RAN sites, mostly shared.
Around 18,000 are managed via its Cornerstone joint venture with VodafoneThree, in charge of the opposite west-side footprint in the UK. As reported elsewhere, Virgin Media O2’s further renewal of supply deals with the pair, even if the mix is changed, effectively precludes smaller open RAN vendors; the Cornerstone setup also complicates new diversity. The upgrades, 2025 and 2026, are part of the operator’s so-called Mobile Transformation Plan; its 5G SA footprint covers 87 percent of the UK population and it wants to close the gap, and eke more out.
Ericsson (or was it Nokia?) explained: “With Virgin Media O2’s mobile traffic more than doubling in the last five years alone, a key element of the network enhancement will focus on maximizing the capabilities of additional mid-band spectrum acquired by Virgin Media O2 in 2025 to strengthen [its] UK leadership in 5G SA. The partnership extension is the latest development in [its] Mobile Transformation Plan – with 2026 investments aimed at improving reliability, boosting capacity, and widening coverage across its nationwide network.”
Nokia (or Ericsson?) said: “Virgin Media O2 will benefit from improved spectral efficiency, coverage, capacity, and throughput, ensuring strong 5G performance today while laying the foundation for 5G‑Advanced… The deployment will enable Virgin Media O2 to improve network quality and accelerate modernization through optimized spectrum utilization and enhanced energy-saving software features… The technology uplift is expected to deliver a more reliable connectivity for Virgin Media O2 customers across the country.”
Maybe RCR will write about who’s winning, Ericsson versus Nokia – in big-ticket wide-area public 5G, where Ericsson has the upper hand, and in niche-intrigue edge-based private 5G, where Nokia has it – or used to, anyway. Give us a couple of hours (unless something else comes up)…
