Before choosing the telephone operator for the Internet connection it is advisable to check the ADSL coverage of your municipality of residence: here's how to do it.
Many times it will have happened to you to have to change house or to have to move temporarily, situations in which it can be useful to check the ADSL coverage and its proper functioning. On the other hand, you will also understand, this is a fundamental step to ascertain which is the best solution to choose to provide your home with an internet connection. If many are those who can count on a secure network coverage, in our country there are still remote municipalities that suffer from the so-called digital divide, which emphasizes the gap between those who can take advantage of the beauties of broadband and those who can not. It goes without saying that, before identifying the telephone operator able to put on the plate the most attractive offer, it is appropriate to proceed in advance with a simple analysis of ADSL mapping of the area concerned. So as not to run into nasty surprises.
ADSL coverage: verification and connection speed
Unfortunately verify the ADSL coverage is not an arduous undertaking. On the contrary, to know if our house is reached by a broadband connection is a process today rather immediate, made even easier by the services made available by the various telephone companies operating on the Italian market. Just so, it will not be necessary to stay on hold with call centers or "chase" on the web this or that online assistant in search of answers: are the same managers, in the name of market transparency, to reserve on their sites a section dedicated to the verification of connection, and consequently the presence or absence of coverage for the address of reference.
In short, you could say that even those who are not exactly a "geek" will easily proceed with the verification, then going to connect to the portal of the operator considered most suitable to their needs. Here, even before signing any subscription, simply click on the section dedicated to the coverage check and enter in the search bar your phone number, or if you do not have a landline, the address at which you would like to activate the internet subscription.
Speed test ADSL and guaranteed minimum speed
Another important aspect to take into account is that the connection declared by the internet provider has a value entirely "nominal", which refers to the maximum bandwidth reachable. The actual value of the browsing speed is in fact affected by various external factors, think of traffic peaks, weather conditions, the browser used, or even the quality of the router supplied, often not attributable to telephone companies. In any case, the same are required by law to ensure a minimum speed of navigation, which is established at the national level by AGCOM, or the Authority for Communications Guarantees.
A premise, this, which suggests that the speed of connection may depend directly from those who use it, perhaps for a technology in charge of data transmission is not adequate, for the number of applications or devices used at the same time to surf, or for the materials within the same telephone network. Not to underestimate, finally, the configuration of the modem or other devices used to surf.
Of course, once the ADSL line is installed, it is always possible to make a speed test of the Internet connection. Exactly as for the ADSL coverage check, also in this case it is possible to proceed with a simple click, using one of the many sites that offer this kind of service. Particularly reliable and free is for example Ookla Speedtest, which provides in a few seconds the ping, download and upload numbers. In practice, all the data we need to evaluate the real speed of connection compared to that stated in the contract.
Alternatives to ADSL (and fiber)
Although ADSL coverage is constantly expanding, with more and more municipalities of the Bel Paese reached by broadband and fiber optics, unfortunately there are still geographic areas in Italy rather large and widespread that are not served by either type of network, making it very difficult to connect and surf the web. In order to reduce this unacceptable digital divide, more and more often technologies are used that provide wireless data transmission. Example in this sense are the WiMAX connections - Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, very similar to domestic Wi-Fi but with a range of action of the repeater signal that can reach up to 50 km. To verify this kind of coverage there are obviously alternative tools and instruments, while for the most "extreme" cases we rely on satellite connections.