The Italy of the future will use 5G

For the Head of INWIT’s External Relations & Communication, Michelangelo Suigo, who spoke at yesterday’s “Telco for Italy” event, institutions, companies and individuals need to make an effort to avoid missing out on the advantages of 5G and mobile.

INWIT is ready to take on “a role on the front line of Italy’s telecommunications infrastructure, including 5G and all other technologies”. This according to Michelangelo Suigo, Head of INWIT’s External Relations & Communication, who spoke at yesterday’s “The challenge of the Digital Divide: how to promote ultra-wideband” round table, part of the second Cor.Com-Digital360 “Telco for Italy” event.

Since the merger of Tim and Vodafone assets, INWIT has been tasked with guaranteeing “capillary distribution and the capacity to host all Italian players’ Telco devices, beginning with Tim and Vodafone, but including all the others,” Suigo stated.

A fundamental part of our strategic plan will be “to create infrastructure dedicated to indoor coverage with devices like Small Cell,” he underlined. “5G will make integrating macro-sites with mini-sites necessary. I’m thinking of covered or closed spaces like stadiums, schools, hospitals, factories. The healthcare, education and industry 4.0 sectors could really benefit from 5G.”
Indoor coverage can be done “faster and cheaper. It’s efficient and has less visual and environmental impact than traditional sites,” said Suigo, while adding that “traditional sites will remain indispensable: without infrastructure, the services cannot be delivered.”

Despite the strategic importance of infrastructure for telecommunications growth in Italy, “there’s still a problem with creating both traditional and innovative infrastructures,” Suigo explained, referring to the ordinance adopted by 500 cities against 5G and the long authorization procedures for excavation works. 

Thus, Suigo continued, “we must push for simplification or we’ll miss out on the advantages of 5G and mobile, and we must lay the fiber cable faster. The Italy of the future will use 5G, as stated by the Pro-5G Manifesto signed by members of Italian think-tanks,” Suigo said, “and INWIT posits that institutions, companies and individuals need to make an effort to adopt 5G, overcoming unfounded fears and fake news. The only way to bridge the digital divide is with this healthy alliance of systems.”

Suigo concluded by highlighting the need for radical ad hoc legislative changes to promote ultra-wideband projects. “Unless some incredible surprises occur, the Simplifications Decree announced by the government will not be enough. I think decisive intervention may be needed, such as a law specifically for 5G. That way, we could truly shift the paradigm and not get lost in a tangle of the bureaucracy and everyday issues that all Telco operators run up against when they try to get authorizations and permits, and it would give a strong push towards creating the infrastructures.”