Italy-based telecom operator TIM and Huawei will jointly release the world’s first FDD full-band 4×4 MIMO antenna at Mobile World Congress (MWC 2018) in Barcelona.

The 4×4 MIMO antenna supports 4×4 MIMO on all of TIM’s sub-3 GHz frequency bands, leaving room also for one dedicated active antenna in C band and mmWave. TIM engineers can deploy the innovative 4×4 MIMO antenna to maximize site value, site sharing with the aim of launching 5G applications from 5G-oriented networks.

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TIM’s radio access networks will evolve from CS voice to PS voice (VoLTE) and from GUL to SingleRAN (GUL & NR), transforming network architectures to support agile service provisioning, mobile video services and network automation.

Telecom engineers can deploy the FDD full-band 4×4 MIMO antenna to support TIM when decides to for the deployment of 5G-oriented SingleRAN antenna to cope with uncertainty of different network evolution paths, maximize the value of legacy sites, and lower investment risks.

“We worked together with Huawei to develop this FDD full-band 4×4 MIMO antenna, which helps us better address antenna deployment issues and paves the way for 5G,” Giovanni Ferigo, chief technology officer at TIM, said.

TIM said the antenna uses Huawei’s dense array and dipole reuse technologies to support 4×4 MIMO on all sub-3 GHz frequency bands in a single sector on a single antenna, including 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1400 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz and 2600 MHz, while leaving room for one active antenna in C band and mmWave.

Its 6-array, side-by-side design, 469 mm wide – and excellent wind load allow for 15 percent increase in efficiency and rapid deployment of best networks.

Joyee Zhang, president of Huawei Wireless Network Antenna Business Unit, said the company proposes a 1+1 antenna modernization concept, Ready for 5G. This concept uses one passive antenna for 4×4 MIMO on all sub-3 GHz frequency bands and one active antenna for C band and mmWave.