Today, Roma Capitale and Fastweb have signed, in Campidoglio, a Memorandum of Understanding to begin trials of 5G and Wi Fi technologies for the development of next generation services to be completed by the end of 2020 in some of the city areas.
By signing the Memorandum, Roma Capitale and Fastweb agree to cooperate in defining test projects starting in 2018, especially within the area of digital applications for Smart City and IoT, Internet of Things.
The purpose of the testing is the development of a platform capable of supporting services and applications in the sectors of intelligent mobility, sensors, 4.0 industry, tourism and video surveillance aimed at enhancing the digital ecosystem of the city, understanding its strategic development priorities and converting it into a laboratory for digital innovations.
The fifth generation mobile networks, called 5G networks, are converged networks in which the traditional difference between fixed and mobile networks tends to blur: the mobile phone-radio towers used in a 5G network reach a significantly greater density than the current networks and are entirely connected through fiber. Therefore, the network performance reaches much greater levels than those reached by 3G and 4G and is comparable to the performance of the fixed networks. The fifth generation of networks will drastically increase the speed of mobile connectivity by reducing to a few seconds the time necessary for downloading large files.
Thanks to the signed agreement, the city of Rome is set to become one of the first cities in Europe to provide 5G connectivity and to play a key role in the landscape of high connectivity services, which will transform the way of living the urban and domestic space.
By signing the agreement, Fastweb is committed to designing and building the network infrastructures that are necessary for the development of the new digital services while also creating new connections to the Internet ultra-wide band network. To this end, Roma Capitale is available to provide all the information in its possession concerning civil infrastructures. The launch of the 5G testing provides also for integration with the Wi Fi within the target territory.
The announcement of the agreement coincides with the launch by Fastweb, in Rome, of 1 Gigabit in download connectivity, 10 times faster than the current one, and up to 200 Megabit in upload, and coincides with the agreement entered into by Fastweb and the Municipality, within the scope of the Public Connectivity System Agreement, which provides for the enhancement of the ultra-wide band network used by the Public Administration.
This is a further confirmation that the relationship between Fastweb and Campidoglio is increasingly strengthening within the scope of a broader investment plan aiming at the improvement of the network services for the population of Rome and for the city administration which will become even more connected so as to adequately support the increasing provision of on-line services for the population, triggering and fostering a virtuous cycle of widespread digitalisation.
"I am particularly proud to announce that Rome will launch a 5G network testing by leveraging on the most advanced technologies and standards in terms of a reduction of the environmental impact and optimisation of energy efficiency. The agreement that we are signing today expresses our commitment to facilitate investments in infrastructures and innovation in order to create a fertile ecosystem conducive to the establishment of new companies in the territory. Ours is a city which, aware of its history and traditions, embraces the future with great enthusiasm", declares the city mayor, Virginia Raggi.
"We are proud to partner with Roma Capitale in a journey to discover new connectivity horizons. Fastweb is an innovative company, constantly searching for new "disruptive" technological solutions and services, in line with the evolving needs of the population and with the needs of companies and large organisations. Today, in close harmony and partnership with the Rome Public Administration, we are ready to provide the most efficient solutions to the people of Rome and to set out the best scenarios for the testing of new solutions", comments the Director of External and Institutional Relations of Fastweb, Sergio Scalpelli.
