Half the amount of Samsung Electronics’ 7.9 trillion telecom equipment supply deal to US carrier Verizon is for software, TheElec has learned.
This shows that Samsung Network’s software competence is increasing fast, people familiar with the matter said.
Previously, software was considered an area that Samsung Network lacked behind its competitors, the people said.
For its contracts in 4G LTE, hardware accounted for 7 out of 10 of the contract price while software accounted for only 3, they said.
Samsung probably offered its hardware kit at a cheaper price than usual for its deal with Verizon but software taking such a large portion of the contract price shows its dramatic improvement in the area over the years, they added.
Last month, Samsung said it successfully tested 5G network slicing with Japanese telco KDDI using RAN intelligent controller. The pair demonstrated the technology from the core to the radio unit, the South Korean tech giant said.
Network slicing, which splits a physical network into multiple virtual networks for different applications, in 5G networks is one of its key differentiation with 4G LTE networks.
Samsung Network is conducting field tests in the US for its virtualized distributed unit. Virtualized central unit has already been commercialized __ a central unit and distributed unit makes up the data unit of a network.
Samsung is allowing general-purpose x86 server equipment to be used in its central unit and distributed unit. This will allow telcos to update their software for new technology instead of changing the entire hardware which will save them cost, the South Korean conglomerate has said.