(ANSA) - KLAGENFURT (AUSTRIA), OCTOBER 30 - An 'Innovation Hub' to be implemented in the Rome area and an operating center in Trieste to assemble components made in China "to create finished products especially on 5G technologies." This is what the Klagenfurt-based company Ondatlc (Austria) that in 2017 acquired the Italian Onda, is planning for the coming months. No comment on the total amount of investment. Ondatlc aims to build the Innovation Hub by 2021, creating a dozen jobs. It will be a center of innovation where young engineers and computer scientists will be able to develop new telecommunications products, in collaboration with the main operators in the sector in Italy. In Trieste, thanks also to the facilities of the Free Port, Ondatlc will open, again by 2021, a center for assembly, testing and control of the production process, especially of 5G components imported from Asia, and in fact, Ondatlc has just partnered with Compal (Taiwan). Ondatlc is the first company in Europe to test and trade components of the 5G platform. When fully operational, the center will employ 80 people. An agreement "reached after months of long negotiations, which allows Ondatlc to become a key-player on 5G technology," said the brand president, Aldo Minucci, a former member of the Telecom Board from 2007 to 2014. Compal employs 64,000 people of which more than 13,000 are engineers focusing on research and development; in 2018 it had a turnover of over 34 billion dollars.

"We have already prepared a product, a modem that we will present to the market by the end of November - Minucci announced - and on which we have already drawn up a suitable launch plan." The president also said, "that the product is experiencing a growing interest outside Italy, where some countries, such as Switzerland and England, are far ahead in terms of implementing the 5G network". To avoid delays in the development of this technology in Italy, Minucci expressed the hope that "the regulations recently issued by the Italian government in terms of constraints and authorizations will soon be clarified," anticipating that "Ondatlc intends to launch in the first half of 2020 in the international market three types of products with 5G technology including a smartphone." Finally, on Trieste: "This city is particularly interesting to us, also thanks to the recent agreement between the Chinese Government, the Port Authority and the Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region". (ANSA).