Palazzani recommends spiders to install and maintain 5G antennas.

Palazzani has noticed that through pandemic at least one sector, the development of 5G, has provided work for its spider platforms – those in the 37 to 52m range being the most requested for this type of work.

Despite the pause in the world economy imposed by the pandemic, the development of mobile technology and 5G has never stopped. By the end of this year, 4G broadband subscriptions will reach 4.7 billion, while 5G will close 2020 with 220 million subscriptions, surpassing one billion people in terms of coverage. Furthermore, the main players in this market have not stopped, in fact all have launched a 5G compliant product on the market and the already launched subscriptions that include this service are already 50 million.

In Italy, France and UK the development of 5G has already given work to many companies, one area is the rental of aerial platforms used for the maintenance and conversion of existing antennas and above all of spider-type aerial platforms. The antennas are very commonly located in inaccessible and difficult sites, in the mountains, inside parks, inside historic courtyards, in places where the use of a crawler platform, with low weight and compact dimensions is required.

Palazzani’s tracked spider aerial platforms are designed to be compact, reliable, technologically advanced and easy to use. The application of a 500kg hydraulic winch transforms the aerial platform lifting platform into a small crane so there is no longer any need to bring two machines to the working site – one is enough.

Palazzani says that all its customers working for the 5G antennas and development sector have purchased new machines with this option. “Their feedback confirms that our machines are suitable for this type of work, every day they send us positive comments and photographs of machines working in sites which are unreachable to other AWP [MEWP] types. Important heights, uneven ground, mud, trees, historic arches, narrow streets of historic centres, are regularly encountered by spider lifts and then they need to work on a single antenna.”

The development of 5G will be mainly driven by areas of the world such as China and the United States – at least in the initial phase. In 2020, North America will be the region with the highest share of 5G subscriptions and by 2026 3.5 billion subscriptions are expected worldwide.