Iliad optical fiber, how to check network coverage | The company answers your questions

Iliad optical fiber

The revolution promised by Iliad in the field of fixed telephony has finally arrived: Iliad's "clear and round" optical fiber, presented by the CEO Benedetto Levi on January 25, promises an FTTH connection with a maximum speed of 5Gbps at a cost of only 15 , 99 euros for users who have already signed a contract for a mobile SIM.

Subscribe to Iliad and surf up to 5Gbps for only 15.99 euros per month!

Iliad optical fiber, at least for the moment, is not available for the entire Italian territory: precisely because of the limits due to the Open Fiber network infrastructure and the type of connectivity used by the operator, it is It is essential to check the network coverage, so as to know if your home is covered by the offer or not.

How to check the coverage of the optical fiber Iliad Optical fiber Iliad, the details of the offer Why Milan, Turin and Bologna have a reduced speed? Iliad optical fiber, the reasons for choosing Open Fiber When will the Iliad optical fiber arrive in the gray areas? Iliad optical fiber, is FWA expected? Iliad fiber, talk about the company

How to check the coverage of the Iliad optical fiber

If your address is covered by Iliad's optical fiber, a page will open that will summarize its details and prices, from which you can complete your registration and subscribe.


If the selected address is not yet covered by the offer, Iliad allows you to enter your e-mail address, so as to be promptly notified as soon as the fiber is available.

Iliad optical fiber, the details of the offer

Let's quickly summarize the services offered by Iliad with its offer for optical fiber:

15.99 euros per month for Iliad mobile users with automatic payment, otherwise 23.99 euros per month; guaranteed price forever, with no hidden costs and no duration restrictions; up to a total of 5Gbit / s in download, 700Mbit / s in upload for 6 million real estate units, in addition to 1Gbit / s in download and 300Mbit / s in upload for a further 1.4 million real estate units; Iliadbox on free loan; unlimited minutes to landlines and mobile phones in Italy and to landlines in more than 60 countries around the world; Possibility of adding up to four Iliad WiFi Extenders to the offer, wireless repeaters to allow optimal coverage in every corner of the house, at a price of € 1.99 per month for each.

Why do Milan, Turin and Bologna have a reduced speed?

If you answer yes, the numbers relating to the maximum speed of the fiber are lower than those of the other cities so far covered by this offer:

Up to 1 Gbps in download instead of 5 Gbps (overall) Up to 300 Mbps in upload instead of 700 Mbps. This disparity in the maximum values ​​reached by the fiber is attributable to the different technology used for FTTH network coverage in the three provincial capitals concerned, which cover a total of over 1.4 million units real estate.

Milan, Turin and Bologna are in fact covered by the FTTH GPON (Gigabit-capable Passive Optical Network) technology initially carried out by Metroweb, a company owned by Enel which later merged in Open Fiber in 2017.

Open Fiber's FTTH GPON networks support a maximum shared speed of 2.5 Gpbs in download and 1.25 Gbps in upload, but are subject to the nominal limits chosen by each individual operator. In this case, for example, Iliad has established 1 Gbps in download as the maximum download speed.



The other cities covered by Iliad optical fiber are instead served by FTTH EPON technology (Ethernet Passive Optical Network), which allows to reach 5 Gbps in overall downloads, which can be reached overall between Ethernet and Wi-Fi ports.

Finally, it must be specified that the maximum values ​​of the Iliad optical fiber are to be considered peak values nominal, which will not always match the actual connection speed. For more realistic data referring to a single user, it is better to refer to the minimum connection speeds guaranteed by the operator:

100 Mbps in download and 31 Mbps in upload in Milan, Turin and Bologna; 300 Mbps in download and 28 Mbps in upload in other cities.

Iliad optical fiber, reasons and limits of the Open Fiber choice

He had already discussed, since the first rumors, Iliad's choice to rely in this first phase only on Open Fiber network infrastructures, which actually limits the audience of potential customers at a much shorter range than the coverage of the mobile network, which has now reached 99% of the Italian territory.

What is Open Fiber? If you have already checked your Open Fiber network coverage while waiting for the Iliad fiber, you may also find yourself a nasty surprise once you consult the operator's website, on which your address will be shown as not covered.



Credit: Photo by Brett Sayles from Pexels As already anticipated by Levi in ​​an interview with Il Sole 24 Ore just before the launch event, for the moment the Iliad optical fiber is foreseen only for the so-called "areas black "of the Italian territory, that is the territories in which at least two broadband networks exist or will soon be developed by two or more operators.

Ultra-broadband: what are the white, gray and black areas? For this reason, if your address is located in a gray or white area covered by the FTTH Open Fiber infrastructure, Iliad's offer will still be unavailable.

When Iliad fiber will arrive in the areas gray and white?

Although for the moment the coverage of Iliad's optical fiber is limited only to the black areas of the Italian territory, expanding it is one of the operator's priorities for the near future. In an interview with MondoMobileWeb colleagues, CEO Levi released this statement:

[...] we couldn't wait to get to the market, we were ready and many people were asking for it, so we said 'go, let's go' and then we will add FiberCop, then we will add more and more Open Fiber coverage. We were ready, it seemed a shame not to launch.



It therefore seems that Iliad's FTTH optical fiber will first extend to the areas covered by the FiberCop infrastructure, and then reach the gray and white areas covered by Open Fiber. As for the timing of this expansion, unfortunately no estimates are available yet.

Iliad optical fiber, is FWA planned?

One of the reasons why Iliad optical fiber has coverage limited compared to the fiber cabling of the Italian territory is actually very simple: this offer is based exclusively on FTTH (Fiber-to-the-Home) technology, that is the "pure" optical fiber that reaches homes without the use of cables in copper.

FTTC and FTTH: what are the differences? Iliad's choice to maintain, at least for the moment, 100% FTTH is a further expression of the positioning on the market decided by the operator, which intends to give itself an innovative and current image, as demonstrated by the durability tests carried out on the router. Iliadbox which, according to company estimates, should last at least 10 years.



For the moment, Iliad's fiber offer does not even extend to networks with FWA + coverage (Fixed Wireless Access) , that is the hybrid network that combines optical fiber with radio frequencies to facilitate signal reception in homes with particularly difficult access.

For the moment, Iliad's fiber therefore remains at 100% FTTH, as a clear signal of support for the Ultra Broadband plan for fiber optic coverage of the area. However, Levi does not exclude, at least hypothetically, an opening in the future to the Open Fiber FWA network, unlike the mixed fiber-copper network which is definitely out of the game.

Iliad Fiber, the company talks

We were able to contact the operator to ask him some of the main questions that arose after the launch of the internet connection service via Fiber also in our country.

Virtually no users consumer today could really take advantage of a 5 Gbit connectivity, consequently we find it sensible to divide the bandwidth over multiple connections. Can you tell us the reasoning behind this door division solution? We listened to people and their needs, which is what we always do. Given the growing need to surf quickly and without interruptions even when sharing the connection with other people, we looked for a solution that on the one hand offered an extremely high overall speed (the optical fiber entering the router reaches up to 5Gbit / s), on the other hand, it allowed to use this speed through the multiple ports available (the one from 2.5Gbit / s - the two from 1Gbit / s) and Wi-Fi. This way you can connect multiple devices at the same time, and they will not steal each other's bandwidth, but will all navigate at maximum speed. Are there any plans to date to allow those who live in Milan, Bologna and Turin to access the 5 Gbit offer? If so, can it be assumed that current 1Gbit Fiber users will see an upgrade to 5Gbit if and when this connection is available? In these three cities, the current network architecture does not currently allow to go beyond 1 Gbit / s and we do not know if it will change in the future. Are users connecting to 1Gbit networks subject to the same public IP sharing “restrictions”? Yes, the assignment of IP addresses is independent of the technology. Are you planning to extend your connectivity to FTTC networks as well? Currently we have made a precise choice: 100% FTTH fiber only, to give all our users the certainty of always using the best technology available on the market. We will possibly consider in the future whether it might make sense to use other technologies. One of the most discussed points regarding Iliadbox is Wi-Fi 5 compatibility instead of Wi-Fi 6. Why this choice? Devices that support Wi-Fi 6 are not yet particularly widespread and iliad is the only operator that develops routers directly in its own laboratories, both in terms of hardware and software. Therefore, we have worked on the functions that are most important today for users, therefore: speed, stability, an intuitive display for a fast and comfortable interaction with the iliadbox, an app for a very functional management of the service, etc ... Some users who search on the Iliad site to understand if they are reached by your offer say that the address (especially the street number) is not recognized or present. What can we suggest to these users who want to know if they can activate the Iliad connection? Users who are not covered can leave their email and will be contacted as soon as the coverage arrives at their homes.