TIM, Fastweb and Huawei switch on the region’s first 5G antenna in Matera

The BariMatera5G project leaves the lab and arrives in the region early with respect to the time frame given at its  launch, expected by the end of March.

TIM, Fastweb and Huawei switched on today the first 5G antenna in Matera, in Via Carlo Levi, as part of the testing promoted by the Ministry of Economic Development. Thanks to this, the cities of Bari and Matera will be among the first areas in the world to be covered by the new technology.

The 5G data connection, implemented through the use of 3.7-3.8 GHz frequency bands made available by the Ministry of Economic Development, represents the first installation of the project’s network development plan, which expects to achieve 75% coverage of the two cities’ testing area by 2018.

The enormous potential of 5G, which reached record speeds of 3 gigabits per second and very short radio latency times in the range of two milliseconds during lab tests in January 2018, was also confirmed in the field.

Specifically, radio equipment fitted with “Massive-MIMO” technology, namely an antenna able to manage dozens of incoming and outgoing radio signals simultaneously and dynamically adapt to the position of individual users and the traffic demand, has been installed in Matera. The antenna developed by Huawei therefore guarantees excellent characteristics for the development of advanced 5G applications.

BariMatera5G is the project with which TIM, Fastweb and Huawei jointly won the call for tenders announced by the Ministry of Economic Development to test the new 5G technology in the two cities. Thanks to an investment of over 60 million euros in 4 years, Bari and Matera will be among the first "5G cities" in Europe where innovative services will be tested in sectors such as healthcare, 4.0 industry, tourism, culture, the vehicle industry and public safety.

In addition to the 3 lead companies, the project involves 52 partners of excellence, including 7 university and research centres, 34 large businesses and 11 public administrations. The 5G network set up in Bari and Matera will provide a transmission capacity 10 times greater than that of 4G and the testing will involve over 70 use cases, bringing about radical transformation of the regions involved.