TIM has switched on the first 3GPP 5G New Radio site in San Marino, which it said makes it one step closer to becoming the first European 5G state by the end of this year.
Massive MIMO technology on the 3.5GHz band has been installed in Faetano in partnership with Nokia.
Attention will be turned to deploying additional infrastructure using the 2.6GHz band after recent testing was held in TIM’s Turin-based research and innovation centre. Work will start at the end of this month, with test terminals exploring the potential of both bands.
TIM said it wanted to turn San Marino into an “outdoor laboratory” for experimenting with the likes of 5G-enabled Industry 4.0, smart city and digital tourism use cases.
Elisabetta Romano, Chief Technology Officer at TIM, said: “The installation of the first 3GPP 5G site is the peak of a virtuous cycle of innovation launched by TIM a few years ago, working with the standardisation bodies and contributing since the beginning to the ITU R “Vision” recommendation which defined the founding concepts of 5G, subsequently guiding work on the technical specifications for 3GPP Release 15 and later.”
Marc Rouanne, President of Mobile Networks at Nokia, added: “Working together we will explore the potential of 5G services that align with TIM’s vision of meeting the future demands of a diverse range of industries and consumers.”
TIM launched its project to turn San Marino into a 5G state in the middle of last year and demonstrated a live 5G test device in the country in May.