Lombardy is the Italian region with the highest fiber-optics density per territory as well as the largest broadband coverage in terms of population served.
Despite the high overall presence of fiber-optics, 1.2 million Km, the existing infrastructures are concentrated, for the major part, along the Milan – Bergamo – Brescia – Verona axis.
The municipality of Milan can count on 14 different providers which have created a fiber-optics network with overlapping paths. Among these providers Fastweb has practically cabled every single street in Milan.
As for ADSL technology three factors must be taken into account:
- High-speed connection to the base stations
- Installation of the Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DSLAM) to activate the base the base stations’ service
- The adaptation of some parts of the old copper wire data network (connecting end users to the base stations)
In Lombardy there are 1162 telephone exchanges. At the end of 2007 the situation was as follows:
- 767 full ADSL coverage, i.e. 66%
- 188 lite ADSL coverage, i.e. 16%
- 207 without ADSL, that is in digital divide, i.e. 18%
Among the 207 exchanges without ADSL, 37 are reached by the wireless service implemented after the “Banda Larga” regional announcement. In 2005 Lombardy Region financed more than 300 municipalities not reached by the ADSL in order to create a data network enabling a fast connection service.