How sad Milan is if you live in the center and the optical fiber does not reach you. Yes, an anomalous case like this can still happen in Italy in 2021, as confirmed by Sole24Ore. Although new legislative and regulatory interventions leave good hopes to resolve. Because the fiber does not arrive (even) in the center of Milan. As anyone who lives in Paolo Sarpi’s neighborhood knows, where not all civics are covered.
When the fiber doesn’t reach the city
The cause of the problem is related to the many variables that come into play when an operator wants to bring fiber to a building. If it succeeds, the speed reaches 1 or 2 Gigabits per second. If, on the other hand, impeding anomalies are triggered, a jump is made to the opposite side of technology, in the past of the early 2000s: the user is condemned to ADSL, to copper. A technology not really adequate for the current uses of the internet, enhanced by covid-19: from videoconferences to football in good quality streaming. How is it possible? The main cause of anomalies like these is a tug-of-war with the condominium. The regulations allow operators to enter condominiums and do the work to install the fiber. However, there are many cases in which condominiums oppose the same and the operator does not have the strength to bring them all to court. It happens in a few percent of fiber installations, as it turns out.
How does it work?
Open Fiber, the main full optical fiber operator (ftth), with 12.7 million wired real estate units, is doing this, according to Sole24Ore. If a condominium blocks the technicians, Open Fiber stops the work but still puts that real estate unit up for sale. We know that Open Fiber does not sell directly to end customers, but does it to operators (such as Wind 3, Tiscali, Vodafone). The unit will therefore be salable on the systems of those operators; if a user who lives there tries to subscribe to the fiber, they will be covered. At that point, if the user tries to subscribe in the “difficult” condominium, Open Fiber can take advantage of this request to overcome the resistances and finally wire the building.
He almost always does. However, there are also cases in which this second attempt also fails. The condominium is too combative against the works, which would also increase the value of the building and improve the lives of the residents. Then Open Fiber is forced to remove the civic from salability. This explains the cover hole in the center of Milan.
It’s not over: damage is added to the damage. If you are in an area where the street cabinet is affected by full optical fiber (ftth) you are not even covered by partial optical fiber (fiber up to the cabinet and the rest copper up to the house). The old Adsl then touches you. If you end up in technological limbo, how do you get out? As usual, thanks to a direct report from the user, to Open Fiber or to the operator in charge of the work. In this case, the third attempt to cover the condominium can be successful: this is how our case in via Paolo Sarpi in Milan was happily resolved. Otherwise, the user can try to do battle in the condominium assembly and even contact a lawyer.