Fastweb, one of the leading telecommunications operators in Italy, in association with Digital Magics, the most import Italian digital start-up incubator operating throughout the Italian territory, launch Together to 5G, the Call for Innovation for start-ups and SMEs within the framework of the strategy designed to position the company as the leading fully fixed-mobile convergent operator by 2020 owing to the future fifth generation network.
The aim of the Open Innovation programme is to create an ecosystem of digital companies and breathe life into a new generation of products, services and business models, which it will be possible to create and perfect owing to 5G through the introduction of new functionalities.
Together to 5G is targeting all innovative Italian start-ups and SMEs that operate in the sectors of healthcare, tourism, fintech & insurance, culture, public administration, retail and manufacturing and that use the following technologies: IoT, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, virtual, wearable and advanced sensory reality, edge computing, network slicing and security.
To take part in Together to 5G, registrations must be completed by 25 November on the platform https://openinnovation.digitalmagics.com/it/challenge/together-to-5g.
Fastweb and Digital Magics will select up to 10 projects and will invite the companies to submit their innovative solutions on Innovation Day, which will be held on 23 January 2019, at the co-working campus, Talent Garden Calabiana, in Milan.
Up to three finalist start-ups or SMEs will be selected, who will enter a Co-design programme, where they will receive support to develop their solutions together with Fastweb and Digital Magics, assessing their strategic, technical and business potential.
The companies that make it through the co-design phase, providing that they meet the appropriate technological and business requirements will then enter the 5G Lab phase for testing and integration in a 5G environment at the Fastweb laboratories and/or in the trial areas for advance testing in the field of the future network and to best develop the solution submitted.
Upon completion of this phase, Fastweb will assess the results obtained and the potential inclusion of the innovative applications in 5G trials in progress in Italy and the inclusion in its portfolio of the products and services selected, potentially setting up a partnership from an Open Innovation perspective.
"Fastweb is at the front line of 5G development in Italy, already holding all the elements of the future fifth generation network: widespread fibre optic network, twenty thousand cabinets ready to house the microcells and frequencies" – notes Andrea Lasagna, Technology Officer at Fastweb. We really believe in Together to 5G, the programme with which Fastweb - working together with start-ups and SMEs - intends to further drive innovation towards 5G, a technology that will have a significant impact across the board, in multiple important sectors and services for society, radically enriching and transforming the world in which we live".
"Thanks to Together to 5G, innovative start-ups and SMEs will have a concrete opportunity to work together with Fastweb, both from a technological and a business point of view, to develop a joint provision system to include in the Fastweb portfolio", declares Layla Pavone, Chief Innovation Marketing and Communication Officer of Digital Magics. "In addition to the growth of their own businesses, of vital importance for new digital companies, Together to 5G offers an important strategic opportunity for start-ups and SMEs: the chance to apply 5G technology, for the first time and in advance, to their innovative models. 5G technology will lead to a genuine revolution in all sectors, encouraging the creation of new companies and services".