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Successful Trial of Open Radio Equipment Interface Standard Paves Way for Mobile Base Station Innovation

Vodafone, Fujitsu, and Kathrein confirm LTE network operated to ETSI ORI Release 1 standard.

Vodafone Group Plc,Fujitsu Limited,Fujitsu Laboratories of Europe Ltd.,Kathrein

March 11, 2015

The world's first trial of an LTE network operated with equipment fully compliant with the ETSI Open Radio equipment Interface (ORI) standard has been performed successfully by Vodafone with support from Fujitsu Limited, Fujitsu Laboratories of Europe Limited, and Kathrein, it was announced today.

ORI is an interface standard that enables the base station's Base Band Unit (BBU) and Remote Radio Head (RRH) equipment from different vendors to interoperate together at the same mobile network site. This allows mobile operators to source the base station BBU and RRH equipment from different vendors, giving them greater market flexibility in the choice of equipment they can deploy. As a result, this will promote innovation in the performance and design of BBU and RRH equipment in mobile communications networks.

The LTE base station used in the trial consisted of BBU equipment from Fujitsu and RRH equipment from Kathrein compliant to the ORI Release 1 standard, connected via optic fibre links. In addition, RRH equipment from Fujitsu was also connected and verified to support ORI.

The ORI standard also supports LTE-Advanced and UMTS communication systems in Release 1, and support for GSM/GPRS communication systems and optimisation for C-RAN architectures has been included in Release 3 and 4 respectively.

Luke Ibbetson, Director of R&D at Vodafone Group commented "The success of this trial demonstrates that ORI has the ability to become a key enabler to enhance the flexibility for mobile operators and vendors to get new base station innovations into mobile networks, and is an important strategic component for how Vodafone wishes to build its networks moving forward."

More information about ETSI ORI and its published specifications (Release 1-4) can be found on the ETSI website: http://www.etsi.org/technologies-clusters/technologies/ori.

About Vodafone

Vodafone is one of the world's largest telecommunications companies and provides a range of services including voice, messaging, data and fixed communications. Vodafone has mobile operations in 26 countries, partners with mobile networks in 53 more, and fixed broadband operations in 17 markets. As of 30 September 2014, Vodafone had 438 million mobile customers and 11 million fixed broadband customers. For more information, please visit: www.vodafone.com.

About Fujitsu

Fujitsu is the leading Japanese information and communication technology (ICT) company offering a full range of technology products, solutions and services. Approximately 162,000 Fujitsu people support customers in more than 100 countries. We use our experience and the power of ICT to shape the future of society with our customers. Fujitsu Limited (TSE: 6702) reported consolidated revenues of 4.8 trillion yen (US$46 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2014. For more information, please see http://www.fujitsu.com.

About Fujitsu Laboratories of Europe

Fujitsu Laboratories Limited has had an active presence in Europe since 1990, forming Fujitsu Laboratories of Europe Limited in 2001. The company's ground-breaking work is closely aligned to the future needs of the business community, focused on making future technologies a reality for today's businesses. Close collaboration with leading academics and experts Europe-wide forms a central element of Fujitsu Laboratories of Europe's approach, ensuring the effective pooling of expertise with other pioneers in any given field of research. Fujitsu Laboratories of Europe also participates in a number of EU research initiatives, bringing together the joint expertise of industry and academia to accelerate the development and use of new technologies on a pan-European basis. For more information, please see: http://www.fujitsu.com/emea/about/fle/

About Kathrein

Kathrein is a leading international specialist for reliable, high-quality communication technologies. The company is an innovation and technology leader in today's connected world. Its products and solutions enable people all over the world to communicate, access information and use media, whether at home, at the office or on the road. The company covers a broad spectrum: from mobile communications, signal enhancement and data transmission in buildings, to fibre optic and cable networks and satellite reception technology, to radio and TV transmission and transmission and reception systems in vehicles. As a hidden champion and family-owned enterprise, Kathrein has been working on the technologies of tomorrow since 1919. The business takes pride in its dedicated employees and passion for customers and quality. More information about Kathrein is available at www.kathrein.com.

Press Contacts

Media Relations: www.vodafone.com/media/contact

Investor Relations: Telephone +44 (0) 7919 990 230

Company:Vodafone Group

Press Contacts

Public and Investor Relations Division
Inquiries

Company:Fujitsu Limited

Press Contacts

Name: Gisela Bauer-Stieber

Phone: +49 8031 184 826
E-mail: gisela.bauer-stieber@kathrein.de
Company:Kathrein

All company or product names mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. Information provided in this press release is accurate at time of publication and is subject to change without advance notice.

Date: 11 March, 2015
Company: Vodafone Group Plc / Fujitsu Limited / Fujitsu Laboratories of Europe Limited / Kathrein

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