The arrival of Internet has revolutionized our life: we are constantly connected and through the web we carry out most of the activities that now characterize our daily life. From the simplest, such as watching streaming multimedia content, checking personal e-mails or keeping your social profiles updated, to the more professional or school ones, experienced above all with the breakthrough of the pandemic emergency.
If until a few decades ago it was sufficient to simply access the Internet, the expansion of the services provided online has instead made another need manifest, summarized in the major issues of speed and reliability of the network : having a good Internet connection has become a priority for many families. In a framework dominated by acronyms, stamps and abstruse terms intended to confuse the less experienced, it seems necessary to move towards technologies more in line with the needs and concrete needs of the user.
In this article, we therefore want to emphasize the different types of connection available on our territory, briefly explaining their functioning, their advantages and their main limitations. However, it must first be said that the browsing speed is related to the type of network infrastructure: that entirely in optical fiber guarantees the best performance ever, followed by “hybrid” infrastructures “ (which use optical fiber combined with pre-existing copper cables) and, ultimately, only copper , the least suitable solution for those who want to have a good Internet connection in your home.
These distinctions are the basis of the classification in “stamps” desired by AGCOM for the benefit of greater transparency towards consumers: red identifies copper and provides for networks without fiber optic cables; the yellow recalls the copper-mixed fiber, while the green refers to the so-called “fiber up to home”. The final choice obviously depends on many factors (including price and use), but there is an element that cannot be governed: the availability . And this, as we will see, is penalizing the spread of FTTH.
The Internet connection via an entirely fiber optic network is the ideal solution for those looking for the right amount of reliability and speed. Its utilization rate is growing rapidly and the locations already covered by the best standard of access on the web are constantly increasing (albeit slowly, due to bureaucratic delays). As the name suggests, the technology in question provides for an Internet connection that arrives directly at the user's home through the use of a fiber optic cable, which is based on long pulses of light thin wires in glassy or polymeric material necessary for data transmission. The advantages are considerable and are expressed above all in a better reliability and speed : unlike copper – which undergoes dispersion and is affected by sudden changes in temperature or atmospheric conditions – the optical fiber is able to preserve better the signal strength over the entire length of the cable and proves to be more stable.
The architectures that use the optical fiber are expressed under the words FTTx , then declined in various abbreviations that differ according to the distance between the optical fiber and the end user: the two reference extremes are generally marked by the architecture FTTN (the least performing one) and by the FTTH , which refers instead to the type of fiber that reaches the home. The performances of the latter are undoubtedly the best. While traveling in Italy at a maximum speed in download up to 2.5 gigabits (2,500 megabits per second), which would allow you to download a two-hour movie in HD in less than a minute, most of the optical fiber suppliers in our area ensure a maximum nominal speed in download of around 1,000 megabits , sufficient to perform in complete reliability and immediacy daily activities and ideal to support the sending and receiving of large amounts of data without any lag.
The only limitation is availability: there are still many homes not yet served by an Internet connection entirely in optical fiber and the path of the future seems to have already been traced. Some recent AGCOM data , for example, showed that only one in ten Italians connect via FTTH.
If FTTH guarantees uncompromising performance, the mixed-copper fiber (instead labeled as FTTC) can count on a greater presence in the Italian territory. Unlike the first, the cable that connects the last section (that is, the one that goes from the street cabinet or from the control unit to the house) uses the existing copper connections. And this is reflected in a substantial misalignment in the maximum nominal download speed, which can go up to 100 or 200 Mbps (megabits per second); the performances increase as the proximity to a road cabinet from which the last section of the connection starts, precisely in copper. The lower use of copper still allows for higher performances than those offered by networks without fiber optic cables, which stop at a theoretical maximum of 20 megabits per second. However, it must be said that the FTTC maintains at least part of the ADSL problems in terms of stability and disturbances, which exacerbate precisely if the cabinet is a few hundred meters away.
It is the last frontier of Internet access and, unlike the solutions seen so far, it is based on mobile connections and on the benefits offered above all by the latest cellular connectivity standard, which has pushed decidedly the maximum nominal speeds achievable in download and upload. This way of accessing the Internet uses a handy device – the mobile WiFi router – which acts as an intermediary for the actual data connection, being able to install an Internet key or a data SIM card to transform the signal into a home connection.
The benefits are innumerable, but there are also limitations to be aware of. A positive factor is undoubtedly the versatility : it is possible to share the Internet connection between multiple devices at the same time, it does not require the presence of a home telephone line and allows you to surf without problems even outside the home environment, since it is a connection on a mobile network. Among the most obvious disadvantages , however, is the system of monthly traffic limits expressed in gigabytes, which for very intensive use or for those who frequently exchange large amounts of data may not be sufficient.
