Italy is a 5G pioneer as the fourth European country to commercially launch 5G services; it is also a highly competitive market. TIM recently announced a 5G cloud network and WindTre extended 5G dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) to 93% of the country. Vodafone is partnering with Huawei on a 5G RAN network and Iliad has been looking to grow its customer base with aggressive pricing for 5G. We looked at Speedtest Intelligence® data from Q2 2021 to see if network performance is leading the way as well. Our analysis includes data on 5G performance among neighboring countries, fastest providers at the country level and performance and fastest providers in Italy’s ten largest cities.
Switzerland has the fastest 5G among Italy’s neighbors
5G performance in Italy and neighboring countries has seen some wild swings over the past year. Switzerland ended Q2 2021 with the fastest median 5G download speed on this list at 177.33 Mbps. France was second (169.16 Mbps), Slovenia third (145.78 Mbps), Austria a close fourth (143.98 Mbps) and Italy fifth (122.54 Mbps).
Switzerland was also fastest for median upload speed over 5G during Q2 2021 at 36.37 Mbps. Slovenia was second (25.42 Mbps), Austria third (21.97 Mbps), Italy fourth (16.43 Mbps) and France fifth (15.95 Mbps). We often see 5G speeds decline after the initial launch period as more users adopt the technology, both adding congestion to cell sites and additional tests using slower devices.
Italy auctioned spectrum for 5G use in October 2018, but only allocated 200 MHz of mid-band spectrum (3.4-3.8 GHz). The relatively narrow bands that were allocated, coupled with the comparatively high price paid by operators, has helped to drive network sharing agreements designed to speed the rollout and lower the overall cost of 5G deployment. In February 2019, TIM and Vodafone announced plans to combine their tower interests in Italy, including passive and active network sharing in towns with less than 100,000 inhabitants. Later that year, WINDTRE and Fastweb (a fixed-line and MVNO operator) agreed to share their network assets in order to more rapidly deploy 5G for their customers. Italian operators have also boosted 5G coverage by using DSS to deploy 5G using existing 4G-LTE spectrum. While Italy appeared to be following suit with much of Europe in restricting Huawei’s involvement in national telecoms infrastructure, reports indicate that Vodafone Italy has received conditional approval from the Italian government to deploy Huawei equipment in its 5G radio access network. This is a definite boost for Huawei in the region and for competition in the network equipment space in Europe.
TIM was the fastest operator in Italy for 5G
5G performance varied widely among Italy’s top providers and TIM was solidly in the lead with a median download speed over 5G of 282.94 Mbps and an upload speed of 24.50 Mbps during Q2 2021. These were 58.3% and 48.4% faster, respectively, than Vodafone’s second-fastest 5G download and upload speeds (178.73 Mbps and 16.51 Mbps, respectively). Iliad was third fastest for 5G download speed and fourth for upload. WINDTRE was fourth fastest for 5G download and third for upload speeds.
Naples had the fastest 5G among Italy’s largest cities
Naples had the fastest median 5G download speed among the ten most populous cities in Italy at 223.98 Mbps during Q2 2021. Turin was second and Bologna third. Milan, Bari and Rome were a close fourth, fifth and sixth for 5G download speed while Palermo had the slowest 5G download speed on the list at 104.97 Mbps. Median upload speeds were relatively close between cities, although Catania’s 26.62 Mbps placed them far ahead of other cities. Rome had the slowest median upload speed over 5G on this list.
TIM was the operator with the fastest 5G in Rome during Q2 2021, showing a median download speed of 270.41 Mbps.
Italy is clearly capable of impressive 5G speeds. We’ll be interested to see if other providers make the necessary investments to catch up to TIM. This could bring up speeds across the country and improve Italy’s standing compared to neighboring countries.
To learn more about the data behind this article and what Ookla has to offer, visit https://www.ookla.com/.
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