The Ryder Cup in Rome is getting its own private 5G and Wi-Fi network from Hewlett Packard Enterprise on the 370-acre golf course at the Marco Simone Golf & Country Club
Around 250,000 spectators and staff are expected at the event which starts tomorrow. The Wi-Fi component will handle crowded areas, while private 5G should cover remote parts of the golf course and support interrupted services for security, stewarding, ticketing, and scoring, independently of local telecom networks.
The Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E network will have 800 access points and is powered by Athonet Tactical Cube, which provides backhaul connectivity to solar-powered Wi-Fi access points in remote areas without cabling which can;t be buried in the ground for archeaoligcal reasons,
The private 5G network covers the golf course with one radio mast located in a central location powered by the Athonet Tactical Cube, a compact and mobile private cellular solution for mission-critical applications.
Italy has allocated all 5G spectrum to mobile service providers, so spectrum is not normally available directly to enterprises, but the Italian Government made an exception for the Ryder Cup.
The Ministry of Communications has given access to the 3.8 GHz band, which is perfect for 5G because it can carry plenty of data while travelling significant distances. To realize the potential of private 5G around the world, governments can play an important role in empowering enterprises, telcos, and technology vendors by making spectrum available for new, innovative use cases such as at the Ryder Cup.