Huawei teamed up with TIM and Fastweb to test 5G data connections over the 3.6-3.8 GHz spectrum band in Italy.

These trials are part of a state sponsored initiative promoted by the Italian Economic Development Ministry (MISE), labelled Project Bari Matera after the first two locations to benefit from it. This initiative is considered to be at the vanguard of European 5G development and was frequently referred to by Qualcomm at its 5G event last week.

The significance of this test seems to be that it was the first data connection tested on an end-to-end 5G network, including the terminal, the New Radio access and the core network. As ever 5G NR USPs such as speed, latency and efficiency were the focus and they managed to his 3 Gbps, 2.6 ms latency and a spectral efficiency of (30 b/s)/Hz, all of which are much better than LTE.

That’s about it for now, since nearly all of the material being circulated about this trial is in Italian. There isn’t even a canned quote, you’ll be devastated to hear, but if there was it would almost certainly make reference to how excited all the participants are and how the trial reflects on their general superiority at everything.