Vodafone Spain opened a new R&D campus in collaboration with the University of Malaga, a facility it will use to explore various technologies spanning AI, 5G, open RAN to silicon chips for mobile networks.

The operator noted in a statement the facility, dubbed the Innovation Hub, will be its second R&D headquarters in Malaga, with the first one launched in early 2022.

The space forms part of a five-year €225 million investment running until 2027 to create over 600 high-skilled jobs and employ 7,000 software engineers in Europe over the next two years.

Vodafone stated the 950-square-metre campus will be home to trials of a wide range of use cases on mobile technologies, part of its partnership with the local university to explore new digital services based on IoT, private 5G and open RAN.

Exploration
Some of the projects currently being developed include the deployment of IoT to create a digital healthcare platform to aid care workers in monitoring and communicating with patients, alongside the application of video analytics to manage pests.

It is also working on a cloud platform designed to make road transport safer in Europe and silicon photonic chips for its mobile base stations.

The operator also highlighted a collaboration with Raspberry Pi to launch a low-cost mini private 5G kit.

Rafael Alcaide, territorial director of Vodafone in Andalusia, said the R&D campus represents its “commitment to the Spanish market and to the research and development of technologies that will shape the future”.