Italy claims European lead in 5G development

An Italian government minister says the country is a year ahead of the rest of Europe in terms of the development of 5G wireless technologies. Antonello Giacomelli, undersecretary of state for the ministry of economic development, says trial networks are expected to be up and running in a number of Italian cities by mid-2018, with wider rollouts taking place during 2019. The minister was speaking at a presentation by Telecom Italia, Fastweb and Huawei, who together are rolling out 5G trial networks in Bari and Matera using 3.6GHz-3.8GHz spectrum. The government has also granted permission for other Italian telcos to test 5G systems, including Vodafone in Milan and a venture involving Open Fiber and Wind-Tre covering Prato and L’Aquila.