The 5G trial is being carried out in partnership with Italian operators TIM and Fastweb
Chinese vendor Huawei announced the completion of the first 5G trial in the city of Turin, in Italy, in partnership with local operators TIM and Fastweb. Huawei said a net throughput of more than 3 Gbps has been achieved using 100 megahertz of spectrum. The 5G trial also reached a spectral efficiency of 30 bits/second/hertz, which is about 7 times higher as compared to the more advanced 4G technology.
The Ministry of Economic Development (MISE) had provided spectrum frequencies in the 3.6-3.8 GHz bands for this 5G trial.
“Speed of connection, latency and efficiency in the use of the spectrum were the indicators object of the test of the first data connection, tested on a network chain end to end 5G including the terminal, the new radio access and the core network,” Huawei said in a statement. “The positive outcome of the first data connection sets the stage for the first site to be switched on in the coming weeks.”
In September last year, TIM and Fastweb, together with Huawei, said the Ministry of Economic Development has awarded spectrum in the 3.6-3.8 GHz frequencies to trial 5G technologies in the cities of Bari and Matera.
The connectivity project stipulates the activation of the first 5G use scenarios as early as June 2018, to reach 75% 5G coverage of the area by the end of the same year, and full coverage of the two cities by the end of 2019.
Some areas to be covered by this 5G initiative in the coming years include smart city, public safety, environmental monitoring, industry 4.0, 5G healthcare, as well as media education and virtual reality, automotive, mobility and road safety. As part of the project, 5G technology will be tested in Bari to create one of the first Industry 4.0 ports in Italy, improving its security, access control and logistics by using IoT solutions coupled with digital automation.
Huawei is also carrying out 5G initiatives with Vodafone Italy. The two companies have recently announced the completion of a technique to improve the range of high frequency spectrum as part of their pre-standard 5G trials in Milan.
Huawei and Vodafone Italy revealed they had reached download speeds of 2.7 Gbps and a latency of just over a millisecond in the first live end-to-end 5G data connection in Italy. Italy’s Ministry for Economic Development has made frequencies available to Vodafone so that it can trial pre-standard 5G in Milan. An end-to-end test network has been built for that purpose.
Huawei and Vodafone have completed the verification of the uplink and downlink decoupling solution based on the end-to-end 5G network, including RAN, core network and terminals.
Huawei confirmed it will invest nearly $800 million in R&D for 5G this year, and launch a full range of commercial 5G equipment, including wireless access networks, bearer networks, core networks, and devices.
In addition, the vendor said it aims to increase the number of NB-IoT connections to over 100 million around the world.
