Industry group AI-RAN Alliance revealed its member numbers swelled to more than 100 since its foundation in 2024, with Vodafone Group among its latest batch of sign-ups.

The organisation counts Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung, T-Mobile US, Softbank Corp and Nvidia among its 11 original members. Other operators, academic institutions, service providers, research laboratories and companies have subsequently joined.

As of an update in February, the group had 75 members across 17 countries including operators Globe Telecom, KT and SK Telecom.

Its aims include driving the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance RAN performance and capability, optimise RAN utilisation and open related revenue streams.

Discussing the addition of Vodafone to its ranks, the AI-RAN Alliance noted this reinforced its expanding global footprint.

AI-RAN Alliance chair and principal fellow at SoftBank Corp’s Research Institute of Advanced Technology, Alex Jinsung Choi, added surpassing the milestone of 100 members “underscores the global momentum behind advancing AI for RAN, AI and RAN, and AI on RAN”.

“Our members are pioneering how artificial intelligence can be deeply embedded into radio access networks,” he noted.

Vodafone head of open RAN Francisco Martin said the operator is “committed to using AI to optimise and enhance the performance of our radio access networks. Running AI and RAN workloads on shared infrastructure boosts efficiency, while integrating AI and generative applications over RAN enables new real-time capabilities at the network edge.”