LTE in Italy
In 2010, the International Telecommunication Union approved the use of 4G technologies LTE and WiMAX . In Italy, mobile network operators only use LTE technology.
The history of LTE in Italy
On June 27, 2011, the auction announcement for the granting of licenses to interested mobile network operators was published in the Official Journal. The auction item frequencies are
- 800 MHz band ( digital dividend and ex-television frequencies), up to 6 draws of FDD frequencies, each operating in an angle of 5 MHz paired spectrum, assignable frequencies on a national basis, appointed from 1 to 6;
- 1800 MHz band, up to 3 many FDD frequencies, each operating at an angle of 5 MHz paired spectrum, assignable frequencies on a national basis, appointed from 1 to 3;
- 2000 MHz band, the first batch of TDD frequencies operated at an angle of 15 MHz, allocable frequencies on a national basis, called Lot A;
- Band 2600 MHz, up to 12 draws of FDD frequencies, each at an angle of 5 MHz in paired spectrum assignable at national level, between 3 and 14, and 2 lots of TDD frequencies, each at an angle of 15 MHz operated, allocable, nationally appointed sets B and C, with the exception of 2500-2510 MHz and 2620-2630 MHz in FDD lots and 2600-2620 MHz TDD frequencies in tiers.
The auction for the allocation of frequencies began on August 30th. As expected by the operator, the following were involved in the auction: Telecom Italia , Vodafone Italia , Wind Telecomunicazioni and H3G .
The auction was successfully concluded at the end of September 2011 with the following results:
- 800 MHz band: Vodafone Italia, Telecom Italia and Wind Telecomunicazioni each got two blocks;
- 1800 MHz band: it has got one block each from Vodafone Italia, Telecom Italia and H3G;
- 2000 MHz band: The network operators were not interested in this band .;
- 2600 MHz band: 4 blocks were given H3G and Wind Telecomunicazioni; Telecom Italia and Vodafone Italia got 3 blocks.
The licenses were paid for with a total of € 3,945,295,100 (€ 1.26 billion from Telecom Italia, € 1.259 billion from Vodafone Italia, € 1.119 billion from Wind Telecomunicazioni, € 305 million from H3G).
The L-band was auctioned in September 2015. Tim secured Lot-A 20 MHz for 230.34 million euros and Vodafone secured Lot-B 20 MHz for 231.99 million euros. The L-band can only be used for carrier aggregation because it does not have an assigned upload frequency due to its origin as a radio frequency.
When the merger of Wind Telecomunicazioni and H3G became known in September 2016, Wind and 3 will form two separate networks until the end of the merger, whereby customers can switch between the networks via national roaming , but this does not yet work smoothly. As a result of the merger and the market division in Italy, a fourth network operator will be created there by Illiad , who was able to bid for frequencies in 2600 MHz and 1800 MHz from Wind Tre .
First offers with LTE
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Iliad Italia will be the fourth Italian LTE-UMTS network operator from 2017/18 and will broadcast under the MNC 222-50. The network consists of its own transmitters and a provisional 10-year roaming contract with WindTre. |
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On November 24th, 2009 the Italian group Telecom Italia announced the first tests worldwide, they were carried out in Turin and fully integrated into the operation with the mobile network 2G / 3G: In August 2010, with 17 broadcasting stations, top speeds of 140 Mbit / sec were recorded . In March 2011, agreements between TIM and Nokia Siemens Networks were announced for the supply of upgrade for the network. Nokia Siemens Networks March 28, 2011 in a press release stating that “NSN is going to some Italian regions for the modernization of the mobile network of Telecom Italia and arranged for the LTE service, the next use technology has already started with more than 7000 base stations for tests in some areas of the city of Turin. ”From the first days of February 2012, TIM offers in its stores in Turin, a pre-commercial use of the on-air LTE network in the city of Turin itself, with an output of 100 Mbit / s in download and 50 Mbit / s in upload. In April 2012, the network was also operated in Milan and Rome. On November 7th, 2012 the TIM network was officially launched in the cities of Rome, Milan, Turin and Naples. On November 18, 2012, the live television broadcast on RAI SPORT 1 of the Turin Marathon was realized with the LTE network of Telecom Italia, mobile cameras on board, bicycles and remote-controlled drones use. On November 5, 2014 Telecom Italia launched the 4G + network with LTE Advanced technology up to 180 Mbit / s in 120 communities. After upgrading to 225 Mbit / s shortly after Vodafone Italy launched with 4G + at the same speed. November 19th TIM presents its 4G-Plus network with up to 300 Mb / s with the use of the three bands in use for LTE (800,1800,2600) to aggregate. The network has now only been activated in Rome for the anniversary and declares that TIM will soon operate the service in other cities as well. TIM also explains that the only currently compatible smartphone and the Samsung Galaxy S6 and that soon the TIM portfolio will be enriched with other compatible end devices. On December 21, 2015, Tim VoLTE service will start under the name “Voice 4G”, but it will only allow the first customers who already have the “TIM Sonder Unlimited” voucher to make HD calls over the 4G network. |
 
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Vodafone Italia successfully completed the tests in the Milan area in 2011. As of March 2012, tests were successfully completed in Turin, where the signal is broadcast in the Turin stadium. It also covered the city of Ivrea, which is one of the historical places of Vodafone. In July 2012 a demonstration event was held in Milan and Rome on a select group of some loyal customers who tested the performance of the new network, 100 Mb / s in download and 50 Mbit / s in upload. LTE was officially launched by Vodafone on October 30, 2012 as the first national operator of this technology in the cities of Milan and Rome, and LTE was later distributed in the rest of Italy. ... The first commercial offer included a tariff with 15 GB data volume with a maximum download speed of 70 Mbit / s. By the end of 2013 the network will be up to 100 Mbit / s. … On November 24, 2014, Vodafone put the LTE network into operation in more than 2,500 Italian municipalities or in more than 74% of the population. On November 27, 2014, Vodafone Italy launched 4G + on the Vodafone network with LTE Advanced technology with up to 225 Mbit / s in 80 municipalities. As of July 2015: Vodafone launches VoLTE as the first network operator in Italy nationwide. |
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Wind Tre : In 2011, tests were successfully completed in Rome in cooperation with Huawei. From there, network coverage began in the most important Italian cities with frequencies in the 2.6 GHz range within 2012 in order to offer the LTE offer to customers transparently. According to Wind's plans, Lunter and Vimpelcom delayed the LTE expansion. As a result, the official launch was only brought into being in June 2013 instead of April 2013. An agreement was drawn up between Wind, Huawei and Sirti for the implementation of the LTE network. In January 2014 Wind 4G started in Rome, Milan, Bologna and at the most important airports in Italy. In September 2015, the new technology covered 47.7% of the Italian population with 4G LTE. The LTE service will continue to be offered free of charge to all customers who have a SIM-4G LTE. H3G had declared that the main Italian cities would be covered with LTE in 2012 and that the 3 would have been the first to put LTE into operation at 1800 MHz and 2.6 GHz. On November 5, 2012, the service was launched in Acuto, in the province of Frosinone, in order to offer the possibility of offering high-speed internet in rural areas. In the press release, 3 stated that it would have covered Rome and Milan until December 2012. The commercial offer was activated for customers in February 2013 by activating the LTE option on the SIM at a price of € 1 per month, where they can then access the ultra-fast network. Since December 2012, customers of “3” can also take advantage of the 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) service, the connection of speeds of up to 100 MB download and up to 50 mega uploads. The 4G LTE services of "3" are currently active in 628 municipalities. Over the next few months, “3” will continue to expand its fast Internet network, with the aim of upgrading with 4G-LTE to provide 56% of the population by the end of 2015. Since May 2015, "3" has started to set up its own antennas to start aggregating the 1800 MHz and 2600 MHz frequencies, especially in Milan and Turin, to enable it to reach speeds of up to 180 Mbit / s that successively with the aggregation and the increase through the 30 MHz band to 2600 MHz TDD, where FDD frequencies (current) and TDD aggregate together. 4G + is available from mid-2015 in the following cities, such as Rome, Aosta, Bolzano, Padua, Genoa, La Spezia, Sanremo, Savona, Piacenza, Teramo, Reggio Calabria, Catania, Palermo and others, as reported by several users. |
Network coverage in Italy
| Network operator | LTE (4G) | LTE-Advanced (4G +) | LTE-Advanced (4.5G) | was standing | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Single carrier (100/150 Mbps) |
Dual carrier (225 Mbps) |
Three carriers (300/340 Mbps) |
Three / quad carriers (500/550 Mbps) |
Quad carrier (700/800/1000 Mbps) |
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| Communities | proportion of | Communities | Communities | Communities | Communities | ||
| Vodafone | 7.132 | 97.2% | 1.952 | 92 | 10 | 8th | March 2018 |
| TIM | 6,849 | 96.3% | 1,342 | 95 | 12 | 7th | March 2018 |
| Wind tre | 3,204 | 95.3% | - | - | - | - | March 2018 |
| Iliad Italia | - | -% | - | - | - | - | March 2018 |
swell
- ↑ LTE-4G in Italia: Assegnate le frequenze agli operatori per 3.9 miliardi di Euro! TecnoLife. (No longer available online.) In: tecno-life.it. Archived from the original on May 4, 2016 ; accessed on May 1, 2019 .
- ↑ silbernagl.biz
- ↑ Iliad lancia la sfida a Tim, Vodafone e WInd-3: "Puntiamo al 10% del mercato" (it) , La Repubblica . March 7, 2017. Retrieved April 1, 2018.
- ↑ Iliad Italia website ( it ) Accessed April 1, 2018.
- ^ Iliad Telecom: 10 anni di roaming con Wind Tre (Illiad Roaming on Wind) ( it ) Accessed April 1, 2018.
- ↑ Vodafone Italia ( Memento from June 29, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), vodafone.it.
- ↑ TIM , tim.it.
- ↑ Wind Tre , windtre.it.
- ↑ Iliad Italia , iliad.it