If you follow the technological evolution a little, you will already know that to connect to the Internet at maximum speed you need to have a fiber optic connection, the only one capable of effectively replacing the now obsolete ADSL line.
But when you talk to an operator about fiber (especially if you have to change it), it will be difficult for you to know what type of technology will be used for your home.
Operators (wrongly) speak of "fiber" even when fiber is not, or rather, only part of the fiber optic connection is used.
In order to be prepared, therefore, I will present you in this guide two the most used abbreviations to identify "mixed" fiber technology, namely VDSL and FTTC .
After reading this guide you will know very well how to move and how not to be fooled by "fiber" offers what fiber they are not (or which are up to a certain point).
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Introduction: the only real fiber is FTTH
If you want to activate a fiber optic connection, the only technology consistent with this definition is FTTH, that is, the fiber that reaches your home to replace the old telephone socket.
If you are covered by FTTH technology, the fiber optic cable must be laid inside your home and arrive with a socket and a special cable (therefore a technician is needed to replace the telephone socket).
Once the socket has been set up, just connect the fiber modem offered by the operator (you cannot use other types of modem) to take advantage of the high-speed signal without using copper wires (the twisted pairs used for the telephone and ADSL) .
In large cities it is possible to find this type of technology with relative ease (operators have invested heavily in this sense), while in smaller municipalities laying the optical fiber to make it available in FTTH is often counterproductive for business, because there is not enough users able to guarantee a return on investment.
To compensate for this possibility (considering that there are really many small and medium-sized municipalities in Italy) it was decided to use another type of technology with fiber optic cable, which we can identify as "mixed" technology.
FTTC: the optical fiber reaches the closet
In order to offer contracts at higher speeds than ADSL in medium and small-sized municipalities, it was decided to focus on FTTC technology, i.e. to bring the optical fiber to the distribution cabinet present in a street or in a neighborhood, and then serve the individual users through the copper cable already present (it is not necessary to change the telephone socket, that of the telephone and ADSL is already fine for the FTTC).
This mixed technology cannot properly be defined as optical fiber, but it is a good compromise to be able to overcome the speeds offered by ADSL with minimal user disturbance (which in fact will only have to change modems!).
Using FTTC technology, you can surf at speeds close to 100 or 200 Megabits per second (download), a decisive step forward compared to the 7-8 Mega that many operators still offer in ADSL.
You can recognize if this type of technology is present by looking carefully at the wardrobes near your home or near your building: for some years now they have changed the wardrobes to make them identical to those present below, with the upper part often labeled as "Fiber TIM optic ".
If you see this type of closet under your house or near your neighborhood, you will most likely be able to benefit from FTTC technology.
VDSL: what it means "> Fibermap
Simply select the region, the province, the city and finally the home address to check your line.
If you are reached by the FTTH fiber you will see the related entry as active.
If instead you are covered by FTTC you will have to check the VDSL voice to be reached by the mixed optical fiber.
By clicking on the Detail button next to the relevant item that you can activate you will get valuable information on the distance from the closet, on the code of the closet, on the end of the works (if not yet finished) and on the average speed that you can get once connected in FTTH or FTTC.
