Telecom Italia (TIM) has joined forces with Inwit, the mobile towers group it controls jointly with Vodafone, to start a major rollout of small cells in Italy’s major cities to improve signal performance and support the development of 5G. The collaboration will begin in Milan and Genoa with the installation of around 100 small cells and will continue in other cities and places with high traffic density with a view to achieving an optimal 5G network, said the partners.
The rollout is part of the master services agreement signed on 25 March between TIM and Inwit ahead of the creation of Italy’s largest tower operator with over 22,000 sites. TIM said the number of macro-towers is also continued to grow to meet the ever-increasing demand for mobile connections alongside the installation of more and more small cells systems in large urban centres to boost the low latency and data transmission speeds of 5G networks.
TIM and Inwit said they are also testing underground solutions comprised of small cells inserted in manholes under the road surfaces in several municipalities, especially in areas with a particularly high cultural and historic value.
