Glasgow, UK – 23 June 2025 — AWTG, the lead partner of the SCONDA (Small Cells ORAN in Dense Areas) consortium, today hosted a milestone event at Glasgow City Chambers to showcase the world’s first dense urban deployment of Open RAN technology fully integrated to an existing brownfield network at VodafoneThree. Co-funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), the SCONDA project is delivering a new generation of agile, vendor-neutral mobile connectivity in the heart of Glasgow.
The SCONDA Project Partner Event brought together over 40 attendees from government, industry, and media showcasing project milestones and experience the live demonstration of 4G and 5G connectivity powered by Open RAN small cells.
The deployment marks the world’s first Open RAN implementation in a brownfield MNO environment, operating over the VodafoneThree network infrastructure in a major city centre. As part of Glasgow’s 850th anniversary celebration, this milestone reinforces the city’s leadership in digital innovation while demonstrating how advanced network technologies can be integrated within existing infrastructure to improve connectivity and urban resilience.
“Glasgow city centre’s dense urban environment was the ideal place to trail this new technology. The faster speeds, coverage and capacity that this technology brings is key to Glasgow’s thriving economy and community. Glasgow City Council is proud to have supported the deployment of small cells on Council assets.”
– Glasgow City Council Councillor Paul Leinster – Chair of Digital Glasgow Board
“This deployment proves that Open RAN is not just a theoretical model—it works, here and now, in one of the UK’s busiest urban environments. AWTG is proud to lead this pioneering project and help shape the future of network infrastructure.”
— Ian Vernon, COO, AWTG
The event featured speeches from Cllr Paul Leinster of the Glasgow Digital Board, and Soufiane Ayed of VodafoneThree, one of the project’s key collaborators.
Following the programme, guests were guided to the nearby demonstration sites where they experienced the live SCONDA network. Real world tests on attendees’ devices showed 5G download speeds reaching up to 720Mbps, with improved coverage and congestion relief across city-centre locations. This deployment uses compact Open RAN small cells mounted on street furniture, allowing seamless integration within Glasgow’s dense urban environment.
About SCONDA
SCONDA (Small Cells ORAN in Dense Areas) is a collaborative project led by AWTG, supported by project partners – VodafoneThree, Freshwave Group, Accenture, University of Surrey, Mavenir, University of Glasgow, The Scotland 5G Centre, and PI Works. The project is funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) as part of its mission to accelerate innovation in mobile infrastructure.
SCONDA aims to demonstrate the performance, scalability, and viability of Open RAN networks in high-density city environments. The Glasgow deployment is the first of its kind in the UK, and serves as a live example of public-private collaboration in action. The support of DSIT has been instrumental in enabling bold, future-ready telecom solutions and advancing the UK’s leadership in open and interoperable mobile networks.
About AWTG
AWTG is an end-to-end engineering services and technology solutions provider operating in Telecommunications, Immersive Tourism, Smart Education, Smart Cities, Smart Retail and Shopping, Industry 4.0, Smart Health, New Media, Internet and other markets that employ digital technologies. AWTG’s technology solutions cover Digital Transformation, Rapid Prototyping, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Everything and Software.