VodafoneThree is rolling out Ericsson’s AIR 3266 radio as part of a £953 million (≈ $1.28 billion) 5G standalone upgrade deal. Ericsson said the first unit went live on VodafoneThree’s network in London last month (via Telecoms.com).
The AIR 3266 was introduced at Mobile World Congress 2025 and supports wide-band TDD massive MIMO operation with bandwidths of up to 400 MHz.
Site count, spectrum, and the London launch
Under the deal signed last September, Ericsson will overhaul more than 10,000 sites. VodafoneThree holds 210 MHz of TDD spectrum in two contiguous blocks of 100 MHz and 110 MHz, which gives the new radio a larger canvas than a narrower-band deployment would.
The London live site gives Ericsson an early reference point before the wider rollout, but the disclosed deployment scope is still the more important number: more than 10,000 sites across VodafoneThree’s network.
Energy claims and AI features
Ericsson says the AIR 3266 cuts energy consumption by 30% and has an embodied carbon footprint that is 50% smaller. Iain Milligan, VodafoneThree’s network development and infrastructure director, said the deployment is part of the company’s £11 billion (≈ $14.7 billion) investment to build the UK’s best network.
Milligan said the new technology will help VodafoneThree deliver greater capacity, improved coverage, reduced energy consumption, and simpler deployment. He also said it creates a platform for new AI-powered capabilities that can optimize network performance in real time.
Link adaptation stays in the pipeline
Ericsson’s AI-native Scheduler for Link Adaptation is due to be trialed by VodafoneThree later this year. If the trial goes well, Ericsson says it will be deployed nationwide in 2027.
Ericsson claims the scheduler can deliver a 20% increase in downlink throughput under congested network conditions. That puts the software on a separate clock from the radio hardware, with the trial and national rollout still ahead.
Droam Perspective
For VodafoneThree’s network planners, the AIR 3266 matters because it is tied to both spectrum holdings and a staged software roadmap, not just a single radio swap. The hardware can support up to 400 MHz, but the more consequential test will be whether the planned scheduler trial turns into the 2027 rollout Ericsson is pitching.
The broader read is straightforward: VodafoneThree is using a high-capacity mid-band build to chase better coverage and throughput, while Ericsson is trying to anchor the network around its own radio and AI layer. The value will show up in how much of that 210 MHz block VodafoneThree can actually exploit at scale.
Dollar amounts marked ≈ are approximate conversions at reference rates (£1 = $1.34).