UK telco VodafoneThree has kicked off the rollout of Ericsson's AI-ready Massive MIMO radio in its London network.

The telco today (November 4) announced that it has started the deployment of Ericsson's AIR 3266 radio, with the first site going live last month.

The rollout is part of VodafoneThree's plans to expand its 5G Standalone network, which covers the deployment of its next-generation Radio Access Network (RAN) solutions across more than 10,000 sites and its core network solutions nationwide.

It's part of the company's £11 billion ($14.85bn) post-merger investment and comes a couple of months after VodafoneThree started the rollout of Ericsson's latest dual-mode 5G Core within its UK mobile network.

Ericsson's AIR 3266 radios combine 5G mid-band TDD Massive MIMO technology with support for up to 400 MHz bandwidth for improved spectral efficiency and performance.

For VodafoneThree, this means the carrier is able to utilize its mid-band spectrum, while expanding its 5G capacity and coverage as it ramps up its deployment of these radios.

The radios are described as ultra-slim and 16kg in design, which reduces physical wind load and simplifies deployment and installation, said Vodafone.

According to the telco, the Ericsson Silicon in AIR 3266 introduces dedicated neural accelerators which boost AI-inference capabilities tenfold, enabling AI models to optimize time-sensitive radio functions in real time.

This paves the way for VodafoneThree to introduce new AI software capabilities within its network, including Ericsson’s AI-native Scheduler for Link Adaptation which, in initial testing, has demonstrated up to 20 percent higher downlink throughput in congested conditions.

The carrier said it will trial the scheduler before the end of the financial year, and subject to successful validation, plans to roll it out nationwide in 2027.

In terms of the sustainability metrics, VodafoneThree notes that Ericsson's AIR 3266 radio delivers energy savings of 30 percent or more and has up to 50 percent lower embodied carbon compared to currently deployed solutions.

"The deployment of Ericsson’s AIR 3266 is another important step in our £11 billion investment to build the UK’s best network. As we continue to expand our 5G Standalone footprint across the UK, this next-generation technology will help us deliver greater capacity and improved coverage, while also reducing energy consumption and simplifying deployment," said Iain Milligan, network development and infrastructure director, VodafoneThree.

"It also creates a platform for introducing new AI-powered capabilities that can optimize network performance in real-time, helping us deliver an even better experience for customers as demand for data continues to grow."

"This network upgrade will provide customers with an improved network experience and better coverage in one of the UK’s busiest networks, and it does so while reducing energy use and carbon footprint. Each step we take together, culminating in this world-first deployment, is laying the groundwork for an AI-ready network built for what comes next," added Luca Orsini, head of customer unit North Europe, Ericsson.

The mobile network operator isn't just working with Ericsson, but also Nokia, to ramp up its 5G Standalone network. In September, the company revealed that, along with Nokia, it had activated the first 100 advanced 5G radio sites on Vodafone's UK network.