Italian FWA player EOLO adds ZTE to its 5G SA vendor rosterItalian FWA player EOLO adds ZTE to its 5G SA vendor roster

The Chinese vendor this week revealed it has signed a multi-year collaboration agreement with EOLO for the project. The announcement comes a couple of months after Nokia made a similar declaration, although naturally ZTE did not mention its Finnish rival.

It's a noteworthy announcement for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it's further evidence that standalone 5G is starting to gain some traction in Europe, albeit slowly. And secondly, it demonstrates that the Chinese equipment makers are having an easier time of it in Italy than in many other European markets.

ZTE will provide EOLO with 5G mmWave radio access kit, including RAN basebands, RAN radio and fixed wireless access CPE terminals, it said.

Clearly EOLO is after some vendor diversification. In December Nokia shared that it would supply the Italian firm with equipment from its 5G AirScale portfolio including baseband kit, Massive MIMO radios, and Remote Radio Head products.

Naturally, ZTE bigged up its own 5G mmWave equipment, which it notes enables 1 Gbps high-speed networking, supporting high-demand applications. In addition, it claims to have the number one global market share for 5G fixed wireless and mobile broadband terminals, with over 4 million units shipped.

5G-based fixed wireless is a growing area in some key global markets, Italy being one of them. Global fixed broadband subscribers reached 1.48 billion at the end of September, according to new statistics from Point Topic. Wireless broadband – mainly FWA, and fixed 5G and LTE – accounted for 1.98% of the market, or just under 30 million subscriptions, on the back of 10.5% on-year growth; Italy was one of the market's growth drivers at 10% year-on-year, the analyst firm said.

Indeed, according to the latest market figures from Italian regulator Agcom, FWA connections represented 11.4% of the country's fixed lines as of the same date, having only just exceeded the 10% mark a year earlier. That 10.5% growth rate Point Topic highlighted means FWA lines numbered 2.3 million, with EOLO dominating the market, its 28.9% share far outstripping incumbent TIM's 19.3% (see chart).

EOLO, which is targeting homes and businesses in small Italian towns with its high-speed FWA offering, is clearly keen to launch services as soon as possible to augment that market share.

"These infrastructures, which complement fibre coverage, play a pivotal role in strengthening networks and driving the country's future growth," said the firm's CEO Guido Garrone, in a statement.

"Starting in 2025, we will roll out 1 Gbps FWA networks, ushering in a new era of connectivity," Garrone said.

The launch of services will also provide a welcome boost to the 5G SA market, which is still failing to live up to expectations in terms of the number of operators rolling out infrastructure.

5G SA covered just 40% of the European population by the end of last year, compared with 91% in North America, Connect Europe recently noted.

Announcements like the one from EOLO and ZTE provide encouraging signs of progress in 5G SA. And on a related note Orange this week revealed that is rolling out a range of new features for its 5G+ business customers, including using Voice over New Radio (VoNR) to maintain a 5G data connection during a voice call, and the option for network slicing.

These are relatively small steps, but they are steps in the right direction for 5G SA.