Which are the fastest internet providers in Italy, fiber or ADSL and speed comparison.
To understand if the speed is that promised with the technology in use we will also show you how to measure the speed with speedtests, how to check if fiber optic connections are available and how to sign a contract at the theoretical speed available at our home.
READ ALSO: Best home internet offers, ADSL or Fiber, more convenient and reliable
ADSL connection
The ADSL connection is the oldest technology available (for fixed connection at home) and is currently the slowest obtainable with any telephone operator. It uses copper twisted pairs along the entire connection path between the telephone exchange and our home, for this reason we find it indicated, in the contracts or offers of the operators, with the COPPER red stamp.
If we have this type of connection, the maximum download speed is 20 Megabits per second, even if the need to connect more and more people has led to an average speed of between 4 and 7 Megabits per second; in upload speed it is difficult to exceed 2 Megabits per second.
If we do not have fiber optic coverage, it is worthwhile to focus only on TIM’s ADSL offers, since the other operators still use the TIM ADSL network to cover users without optical fiber.
Mixed optical fiber connection (VDSL or FTTC)
A good evolution of ADSL is the mixed copper fiber (also indicated by the names VDSL and FTTC), in which the copper pair is present only from the house to the cabinet on the street, with the latter using the optical fiber to the central . This technology is identifiable with the yellow stamp FR.
Using this technology we will have a maximum download speed of 300 Megabits per second, but the average speed is between 30 and 120 Megabits per second (based on the distance from the control unit, the type of cabinet and the coverage of the optical fiber). In upload, 20 Megabits per second are often reached, with an average of 14 Megabits per second.
The best operators for copper mixed fiber are undoubtedly Fastweb and WindTre, which present the right compromise between connection speed and the price of the monthly subscription.
Wireless connection (FWA)
Another evolution of the mixed optical fiber connection is the FWA connection, in which the optical fiber reaches a radio antenna and the connection is provided via a radio link (therefore wireless). Again the yellow stamp FR, but with the wording mixed fiber radio.
This technology allows you to reach a maximum speed of 100 Megabits per second in download, even if the average speed settles between 15 and 50 Megabits per second. The upload speed is around 10 Megabits per second, with an average of 5 Megabits per second.
Those who do not have access to the traditional telephone network can consider the FWA technology, offered by all operators: the best are certainly TIM, EOLO and Linkem.
True Fiber Optic Connection (FTTH)
The fastest connection that can be activated for the home is undoubtedly pure fiber, also identified as FTTH; in it the optical fiber is present on the whole connection, from the telephone exchange to the house wall where we will connect the modem. We can recognize this connection from the green stamp with the letter F.
With this technology we reach the maximum speed of 2500 Megabits per second (2.5 Gbit / s), with an average speed between 600 and 1200 Megabits per second.
The best operators for direct optical fiber are TIM, Vodafone, Fastweb and WindTre, ie all the main telephony operators.
How to find out the available technology
In addition to checking the stamp on the selected offer or on the contract (perhaps before signing it), we can know in advance which technology we are going to exploit using a free service such as Fibermap.
To proceed with the coverage check we open the site, indicate the region, the province, the city and the street in which we want to check (also inserting the street number) and, in the new screen, we check if there is only ADSL or if there are also fiber optic connections (indicated as Ftth e VDSL).
Let’s not underestimate the EVDSL technology, which allows copper mixed fiber to reach up to 300 Megabits per second: it can be a good compromise pending the arrival of true optical fiber.
For the FWA technology we will necessarily have to rely on the site of the chosen operator, who will be able to indicate if the necessary radio coverage is present (in addition to providing us with the indicative speed of the connection).
How to perform the speed test
To check the speed of our current connection and to see if it is within the average described above (for each type of connection) we open the How2do speedtest page and, scrolling down, we press up Start test. We repeat this test at least 3 times and only use the Ethernet cable connection, so that we can actually measure the real speed of the connection (without the interference of the Wi-Fi connection).
Alternatively we can also use the phone speedtest app or the Windows apps for speedtest, to be downloaded on all modern Windows PCs.
Conclusions
Using the information in the guide we will be able to see if the chosen internet provider gave us a slow connection or provided us with the best possible connection in our area. Even assuming that the information provided may not be accurate (given how big Italy is), it still represents an excellent service for finding your way around and discovering the wrong providers.
In another article we also saw how compare internet provider speeds so you can always choose the best operator at the moment by spending very little.
If the internet connection is slow, we can always adopt some tricks to improve the internet speed as explained in the following articles:
- Improve internet speed in Windows 10 and 11
- speed up your internet connection with 5 Windows tricks
- Optimize wireless without Wifi network slowdowns and browse fast
- What to do if the internet connection is slow