Telecom Italia (TIM), one of the largest communication companies in Italy, has turned on 5G services to three cities with plans to expand to other countries and cities before year-end.
The three cities include Rome, Turin and Naples and testing of 5G services is also occurring in six additional cities including Matera, Bari, Milan, Bologna, Verona and Florence with the goal of having the networks turned on by the end of 2019.
TIM said it plans to cover 120 cities in Italy within the next two years, representing about 22% of the population. Additionally, the telecom is working with other companies to offer 5G roaming services in six countries starting with Austria this month as well as the U.K., Switzerland, Spain, Germany and the United Arab Emirates.
TIM has entered into partnerships with Samsung for the Galaxy S10 5G, Xiaomi for the Mi Mix 3 5G and Oppo for the Reno 5G. These same phones are being offered by a number of other telecoms in a variety of other countries where 5G has gone live and they are considered the first generation of 5G smartphones on the market.
Italy marks the seventh country to roll out 5G services joining South Korea, the U.S., the U.K., Spain, Switzerland and Australia.
