ATAC S.p.A., Azienda per la Mobilità di Roma Capitale, has joined the project Roma 5G, launched in September of last year by the Rome public administration with the collaboration of Fastweb and Ericsson, by which the city becomes a candidate for being one of the first cities in Europe to have mobile infrastructures of the fifth generation.
With the signature of the Memorandum of Understanding, this partnership is further strengthened with the aim of developing and testing innovative services based on the Wi-Fi and 5G networks in some of its urban areas in order to accelerate the process for transforming the city of Rome into a smart city capable of significantly improving the liveability and stimulating production in the territory.
Fastweb and Ericsson will create the network infrastructure necessary for the development of the new digital services enabled by 5G, in synergy with the WiFi platform, already widespread and active in the city. Atac will instead make available strategic municipal infrastructures such as final stops, poles and pipe systems for the passage of fibre optic cables to support a widespread signal coverage and the distribution of the new services based on 5G both indoor and outdoor while benefiting from the competitive advantages offered by the mobile networks of the fifth generation.
Thanks to the addition of Atac to the Roma5G project, in the next few months, some system testing, limited to certain areas of the city, concerning Public Safety and Urban Mobility, will be carried out.
"We are participating with great interest in the development of new technologies in 5G with the purpose of testing mobility services. We are in fact confident, in line with the digital transformation of the company according to our business plan, that we must fully seize the opportunities provided by digital. This applies to sales, production and information to the users services. The 5G networks offer extraordinary potentialities. By contributing from the beginning to this revolution, Atac intends to participate as a major player, with evident benefits not only for the company but also for our customers and therefore for the city", explained Atac CEO, Paolo Simioni.
"With the #Roma5G project, the Roman public administration is on the front lines in the testing of mobile networks of the fifth generation with the dual objectives of broadening the provision of services to the citizens and companies, and of attracting investments to the territory. By joining the Memorandum of Understanding, Atac adds to the project a valuable player since urban mobility represents one of the application scopes chosen for testing innovative solutions based on the new technological infrastructure" remarked the Rome Councillor, Flavia Marzano
"The 5G testing on the Atac transportation system represents an additional service for those using public transportation in Rome. This protocol is also the product of the work performed by the Councillorship of this Mobile City in synergy with the municipal transportation company. The transportation revolution involves innovation and thanks to the development of this technology we are giving more choices and opportunities to the citizens and tourists of Rome" declared the Councillor of The Mobile City, Linda Meleo.
The participation of Atac in the Memorandum of Understanding follows the activation, in February, of the first 5G signal during a live demo of virtual reality that has allowed the demonstration, on site, of the potentialities of the future network of the fifth generation in terms of transmission capacity, significant reduction in latency and directionality of the signal for all the mobile users.
For additional information on the Roma 5G project, visit the portal www.roma5g.eu.