Italian Operators TIM, Fastweb Tap Huawei to Launch 3GPP 5G Commercial Base Station

TIM and Fastweb put the first 5G base station (complying with 3GPP standards) into commercial use, featuring Huawei's end-to-end (E2E) 5G equipment. The three partners also jointly demonstrated ten 5G use cases in the cooperation.

Luigi Di Maio, Deputy Prime Minister of Italy and Minister of Economic Development, Labor and Social Policies, attended the inauguration ceremony to press the startup button for the deployment of the first 5G base station. TIM and Fastweb intend to provide the cities of Bari and Matera with 5G commercial coverage (75% of the population) by the end of 2018.

Luigi Di Maio, Deputy Prime Minister of Italy and Minister of Economic Development, Labor and Social Policies, pressed the startup button for the first 5G base station deployment.

TIM, Fastweb and Huawei used this opportunity to jointly demonstrate a total of ten 5G use cases at Fiera del Levante in Bari. These use cases focus on Smart City and Transport, Environment and Heritage, Smart Health, Smart Port, AR/VR, Smart Culture and Tourism, Smart Road, Smart Agriculture, etc. "5G will be the most important enabling factor for many innovative services that can revolutionize the lives of citizens and businesses, effectively implementing the gigabit social paradigm," said Mario di Mauro, Strategy and Innovation & Customer Experience Officer of TIM. "The new and demonstrated use cases launched with the Bari Matera 5G project are part of a large portfolio for innovative solutions that Telecom Italia is developing to accelerate the digitization of the country." Andrea Lasagna, Fastweb's Chief Technology Officer, highlighted, "The potential of 5G is endless and able to deeply transform our way of life. The lighting of the first 3GPP 5G base station in Bari marks a new important milestone in the path of innovation of the Bari Matera 5G project."

TIM, Fastweb and Huawei jointly demonstrated 5G use cases

As a long-term business partner of TIM and Fastweb, Huawei has provided a series of E2E 5G commercial devices to help construct core networks and access networks, as well as customer premise equipment (CPE). "Research, investments in the territory, and collaboration with the partner ecosystem are at the base of the Huawei philosophy and can be seen in the use cases presented at the Fiera del Levante, one of the most significant achievements in Italy," said Luigi De Vecchis, President of Huawei Italia. "We believe that this marks a significant step for the creation of digital services and a unique opportunity for development not only for Puglia but for the whole of Italy."