Qualcomm’s events team has had a frantic end to the year, culminating in the demo of a 5G NR video call over millimeter wave in Italy.

The venue was TIM’s freshly unveiled 5G Innovation Hub in Rome. In attendance were Qualcomm and TIM, of course, but also a host of kit and device partners as well as the great and good of Roman public life, including its Mayor Virginia Raggi (pictured). Most of the presentations were in Italian, but they sounded pretty cool, and there were also a bunch of demos from the various partners.

The highlight of the day was what was claimed to be Europe’s first 5G NR video call, completed over the TIM network using millimeter wave. It made use of a Qualcomm modem and some Ericsson kit. The demo is being positioned as ‘a new milestone that will soon lead to the commercial use of 5G mmWave technology in Europe.’

“When we started to define the strategy and the development plans for 5G, we immediately realized that such a massive challenge could not be faced without the support of a wide range of partners committed to the same goal,” said Mario Di Mauro, Chief Strategy, Innovation & Customer Experience Officer at TIM.

“We therefore proposed Qualcomm Technologies set up a place where work on the new 5G services and every business idea could find a quick realization thanks to the support of leading international technology players, innovative partners and start-ups from the local and national ecosystem.”

“Qualcomm Technologies is very excited to be part of this initiative and we would like to congratulate TIM on the significant momentum they have achieved in a short time with the Hub,” said Enrico Salvatori, President Qualcomm EMEA. “A great example of innovation is today’s demo showing the first 5G mmWave mobile smartphone form-factor mobile test device powered by the Snapdragon X50 5G modem connecting to Ericsson 5G Radio Access Network.

“We are very pleased to be part of the team helping to bring 5G to commercial reality in Italy in 2019 and also to realizing the vision of the Hub. 5G is so much more than new devices and smartphones and it will provide significant growth opportunities in new sectors. The Hub provides TIM with a strong platform to leverage the benefits of 5G to a whole host of new customers and industries.”

We’ll leave it at that for now, but we shot a bunch of video interviews while we were there so keep an eye out for those in the coming days. We can also recommend the Farina Kitchen pizza restaurant, which features a proper wood fired oven and does a very naughty fried pizza starter. Here’s a shot of the 5G call taking place.