Italian Energy Infrastructure Company and Vodafone Deploy Hybrid 5G Network Across Italy

Snam, with the aid of Vodafone Italia, is deploying a private network that will operate on both 4G and 5G across 23 of the company’s Italian facilities. The new network will be Italy’s first hybrid 5G private mobile network in the energy field.

Snam is an Italian energy infrastructure company focused on natural gas transportation, storage, and distribution. It operates Europe’s largest natural gas transmission network spanning over 30,000 miles across Italy.

Vodafone’s hybrid infrastructure aims to bolster 4G and 5G connectivity across 23 sites within the facilities while also extending enhanced coverage to the local population through integration with the surrounding public network. The design allows seamless usage of Vodafone SIM cards for both private data services on the network and public data on the external Vodafone network. This ensures consistent 5G access even in areas where the dedicated network is unavailable and only public network coverage is present. The hybrid model looks to deliver pervasive high-speed connectivity by blending the private network with Vodafone’s public infrastructure. “This functionality will allow Snam to take advantage of a service extended to the entire Vodafone coverage on the national territory with the maximum degree of flexibility for its users and applications,” said Vodafone.

“This project allows us to make our concrete contribution to accelerating the energy transition in Italy,” said Alessandro Magnino, head of global enterprise of Vodafone Business Italia.

“The solution Vodafone is proposing to us combines the benefits of public and private 5G, guaranteeing us high levels of performance, availability and reliability, which are necessary in order to take our advanced solutions, including drones, IoT, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, where they are needed,” said Giorgio Veronesi, Executive Director of Digital Technology and Innovation at Snam.