Federica Laricchia
Research expert covering the global consumer technology industry
5G in Italy - statistics & facts
5G technology, the fifth generation of mobile broadband, recently started rolling out. Nowadays, it is available in many regions around the world, like the United States and Western Europe, where there will be over 433 million 5G subscriptions by 2027. Italy auctioned 5G frequencies to its major mobile telecom providers in 2018, totaling 6.5 billion euros. Furthermore, the Italian government appointed plans to subsidize 5G deployment and infrastructure, namely, the “Italia 1 Giga”, planned for 2026, and the “Italia 5G", worth around 950 million euros.
As for frequencies, the roll-out of the 700Mhz 5G frequency, which is said to provide a wider coverage due to low frequency and good building penetration, is expected to be completed by the end of 2022, covering 99 percent of the population the following year. On the contrary, the 3.5GHz 5G network, defined as a balanced solution between coverage and capacity, is expected to be fully launched by 2023 and will be available to around 46 percent of the population.
5G coverage in the peninsula
In 2021, the majority of the country could conceivably access 5G. Particularly, the 5G technology was available roughly 17 percent of the time in urban areas and 14 percent of the time in rural areas at speeds of 128.5 Mbps and 83.2 Mbps, respectively.As for frequencies, the roll-out of the 700Mhz 5G frequency, which is said to provide a wider coverage due to low frequency and good building penetration, is expected to be completed by the end of 2022, covering 99 percent of the population the following year. On the contrary, the 3.5GHz 5G network, defined as a balanced solution between coverage and capacity, is expected to be fully launched by 2023 and will be available to around 46 percent of the population.
5G adoption and costs
Given its many advantages, Italy is investing in this technology, and the cumulative costs of 5G enhanced mobile broadband deployment are expected to reach 8.5 billion euros by 2025. On the one hand, the telecom providers Telecom and Vodafone recorded the highest auction expenditures, totaling around 4.8 billion euros. By contrast, Iliad, WindTre, and Fastweb offered smaller amounts, around 1.6 billion euros altogether. However, other Italian companies appear not to be particularly engaged in 5G. Indeed, in 2021, most Italian firms had a small or medium interest in this technology, as were most of their investments in the technology.5G providers' reach and experience
As mentioned above, in 2018, Italy held the 5G auction and since then providers have been working on their 5G roll-out. In 2021, WindTre was the provider with the highest 5G availability, followed by Vodafone and Iliad. However, in terms of download and upload speeds, TIM was the leading provider, recording an average download speed of 271.7 Mbps and an average upload speed of 25.1 Mbps in 2022. Furthermore, in the same year, TIM provided the best video experience, and the best game experience, while Iliad provided the highest-quality 5G voice app experience. Finally, all these telecom providers offer deals including subscriptions and 5G-enabled smartphones. In the peninsula, available 5G smartphones not only included the brand-new iPhone 14 and the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 but also cheaper devices like the Oppo Reno8Pro and Honor X8 5G.
