EVDSL: the alternative to optical fiber for fast Internet

A direct optical fiber (also called FTTH) is the best technology to connect to the Internet at home or in the office: the fiber optic cable reaches the wall socket and, once the suitable modem is connected, we can travel at a minimum speed of 1000 Megabits per second (also known as FTTH 1 Gbps), up to 2500 Megabits per second (or also known as FTTH 2.5 Gbps). These dream speeds are not available to everyone in Italy: many have to settle for copper connections (the classic ADSL line) or in mixed copper fiber (also known by the names FTTC or VDSL). For those who are not lucky enough to be able to activate an FTTH, there is hope to get a line at least fast: the latest version of the mixed copper fiber, called EVDSL or eVDSL, allows you to achieve very high download speeds, up to 300 Megabits per second, keeping the traditional telephone socket.Let’s see together then how to activate eVDSL and how to check if there is coverage in our city or at our home or office address so that we can surf at the maximum speed available for this technology while waiting to be able to spend a day on FTTH direct optical fiber.

READ ALSO: VDSL, FTTC, and FTTH fiber: what differences and which is better?

How to have fast Internet with eVDSL

This technology is quite widespread in Italy but it is not activated in all equipment for commercial reasons or for specific business choices: even if the equipment on the street (cabinets) are already compatible, it is preferable to leave the classic VDSL up to 100 Mega or worse. the ADSL. Let’s see in the following chapters how to check if eVDSL is active and how to take advantage of this fast Internet connection.

Check eVDSL coverage

The best place to check if your home or office address is covered by the eVDSL network is Fibermap, accessible from the official website.

On the page that opens, we choose the region and the province, enter the municipality or hamlet where we live, enter the street, and finally the house number. A screen will open with a summary of the technologies available at our address: if we find the word YES next to EVdsl, our street is covered and we can benefit from this technology to have fast Internet (up to 200 or up to 300 Megabits per second, as also indicated in the column Max speed); if instead, we find the word NO next to EVdsl, our route is not yet covered by technology and we will only be able to navigate in VDSL (up to 100 Megabits per second) or worse in ADSL (up to 20 Megabits per second).

To check the coverage on other sites, we recommend that you read our guide Best Optical Fiber: check coverage and offers.

Activate an eVDSL subscription

After verifying the presence of eVDSL technology, it is advisable to immediately contact the telephone operator already active on our line, asking to be able to obtain a speed upgrade or shipment of a new compatible modem, especially if we were already traveling at 100 Megabits per second. Usually, this upgrade is free: if you are looking for some money or increases you might as well look around for new offers.

If the house has no line or if we used ADSL up to now it is advisable to immediately take a look at the sites of the various telephone operators, choosing the eVDSL offer that best suits our needs.

Below we have collected the sites to immediately access the best active offers for eVDSL:

• TIM
• Vodafone
• Fastweb
• WindTre

We choose the most convenient offer, we carry out the coverage check with the chosen operator and we verify that the download connection speed is higher than 100 Mega, so you can take advantage of eVDSL properly. We avoid all offers that have a speed of 100 Mega or less: in these cases, we are using the normal VDSL and it does not make sense since we can benefit from a higher level technology.

To find the best offer we can read our guide More affordable and reliable home internet offers Fiber or ADSL.

Choose an eVDSL modem

All modems offered by mobile phone operators are compatible with eVDSL: if we do not want to buy a personal modem, we can therefore rely on the solutions proposed by the operators and surf at maximum speed. If instead, we want to use a personal modem to connect to the eVDSL network, we advise you to spare no expense and to focus on the modem AVM FRITZ!Box 7590, available on Amazon for less than 250 €.

By connecting this modem to the home telephone socket and configuring the Internet connection with the wizard (depending on the operator in use) we will be able to surf up to 300 Megabits per second and connect the devices via Dual-Band Wi-Fi (double 2.4 GHz network and 5 GHz). If we have never set up a FRITZ! Box modem before, we invite you to read our guides Advantages of using a FRITZ! Box for your home network e How to configure FRITZ! Box modem on Fastweb network.

Conclusions

With eVDSL it could be at least partially remedy the digital divide that afflicts Italy and USA. Even if it does not reach the speed of direct optical fiber, the EVDL allows to obtain up to 300 Megabits per second in download: for what you do at home or in a small office it’s crazy speed, able to postpone the arrival of FTTH even for 4-5 years without having to make sacrifices. We hope that the government or operators decide to invest heavily in eVDSL exactly as they do for FTTH, so as to be able to keep the copper mixed fiber infrastructure up and to guarantee adequate download speeds in every area of ​​Italy.

If at our address there is the only ADSL as a connection at home, we advise you to immediately focus on wireless-based home connections (i.e. FWA and 4G), as seen in the guides How to have ADSL Internet without TIM and telephone line e How much does it cost to navigate with LTE TIM, Iliad, WindTre, Vodafone stick of soap.

READ ALSO -> Gigabit fiber or 1000 Mega: how to get it to surf fast