This event marks the first usage of the 200MHz of the 26 Ghz spectrum that the company acquired from Italian regulator MiSE in 2018, as well as an additional 200 Mhz available to them as part of the spectrum auction’s innovative ‘club use’ clauses.
TIM worked with Ericsson and Qualcomm Technologies to achieve this milestone and this represents an additional step forward regarding millimetre-wave.
It was achieved by using an Askey CPE RTL0200 powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon X50 5G Modem-RF System
TIM used a standard 3GPP Non-Stand Alone (NSA) solution that allows devices and network components from different providers to interact and aggregate TIM’s 4G and 5G network, already implemented in 3.7 GHz spectrum.
These speeds, however, could be just the beginning for TIM’s network, which will see its available bandwidth increase to 800 MHz and 1,000 MHz in 2020.
“This milestone paves the way to the development of new 5G solutions to grant fixed ultrabroadband to families, companies, and public authorities not yet covered. This also includes coverage dedicated to the development of robotics and automation digital services in the smart manufacturing area. All of our customers will therefore be able to take advantage of a wide range of integrated solutions that will allow them to fully enter the Digital Society,” said Michele Gamberini, chief technology and information officer of TIM.
Commenting Enrico Salvatori, president, Qualcomm EMEA, said: “Qualcomm congratulates TIM on this significant milestone which again demonstrates the potential of 5G mmWave technology and shows how operators are able to use a wide range of spectrum bands to deploy 5G. 2020 will see a significant expansion in 5G coverage and the use of mmWave bands will play a clear role in the build-out."
This record joins a collection of connectivity achievements by the company, having recorded the first 5G connection in all of Italy in 2017, as well as the first 5G videocall in Europe in 2018.
