Italy's TIM has claimed another first for its mobile network by enabling upload speeds of up to 75 Mbit/s for all customers, and from July this year will enable 700 Mbit/s download speeds, over its 4.5G network in Turin, Milan, Rome, Naples, Palermo, Taormina and Giardini-Naxos.
In addition, as part of its fixed and mobile ultrabroadband initiative, TIM is launching a new 1,000 Mbit/s fixed-line service in 70 Italian municipalities. The company stated that the initiatives are the result of key investments to upgrade its ultrabroadband network, which currently reaches approximately 67% of Italian homes with fibre and covers 97% of the population via its 4G mobile network.Through its Fibre and Mobile program, TIM offers customers connectivity enabling up to 1,000 Mbit/s download and 100 Mbit/s upload rates in 70 municipalities where the FTTH service is already available and, leveraging its 4.5G mobile network, 700 Mbit/s download rates in 11 cities. TIM stated that new customers can now sign up for its new Fibre and Mobile offer and receive broadband service with from 100 up to 1,000 Mbit/s bandwidth.
TIM stated that through planned investments for the period 2017 to 19 amounting to around Euro 11 billion, of which Euro 5 billion is dedicated to network modernisation, it has extended fibre coverage in Italy to over 16 million homes in around 1,900 municipalities. In 1,300 of these municipalities the broadband speed has been doubled to 200/70 Mbit/s via its FTTH infrastructure.
In addition, on its mobile network, having become the first service provider in Europe to launch 4.5G commercial service with download speeds of up to 500 Mbit/s in 11 cities, from July this year TIM plans to offer up to 700 Mbit/s download speeds in Turin, Milan, Naples, Rome and Palermo, Taormina and Giardini-Naxos for customers with compatible devices.
TIM is also offering all customers mobile service with upload speeds of up to 75 Mbit/s on Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ and Sony XPERIA XZ Premium devices.
- In April, TIM announced that as part of a program to implement 5G technology it would launch the first field tests in the city of Turin, and would demonstrate the technology in the city on 5G Day at its Open Lab innovation and development centre.
- The Torino 5G project, instituted by TIM through an agreement with the Turin municipal authority, is designed to allow TIM to carry out early trials of 5G technology in a metro environment by the end of 2018. The company noted at that time that Turin was expected to become the first city in Italy to have a 5G mobile network, and cited a goal of deploying the technology by 2020.
- For the 5G Day, TIM partnered with Qualcomm Technologies and Ericsson to demonstrate speeds of up to 700 Mbit/s download and up to 75 Mbit/s upload over its live 4.5G mobile network.
