The Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Italy is .it and is sponsored by Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche. The .eu domain is also used, as it is shared with other European Union member states.

Currently Internet access is available to businesses and home users in various forms, including dial-up, fiber, cable, DSL, and wireless.

History

Average Speed

According to netindex.com, the Italian average for fixed connections is below the global average (96.98 Mbit/s Down and 51.28 Mbit/s Up at january 2021) with an average speed of 79.62 Mbit/s Down and 31.41 Mbit/s in upload (consideration based on the public data available at: Italy Median Country Speeds - January 2021).

Overview

According to data released by the fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) Council Europe, Italy represents one of the largest FTTH markets in Europe, with more than 2.5 million homes passed by fibre at end-December 2010;[1] at the same date the country reported around 348,000 fibre subscribers.[1] The "Fibre for Italy" project (with the participation of providers Fastweb, Vodafone and Wind in a co-investment partnership) aims to reach 20 million people in Italy's 15 largest cities by 2015,[1] and Telecom Italia plans to connect 138 cities by 2018.[1] The government has also started the Italia Digitale project, which aims to provide at least 50% of Italians with high-speed internet access by 2020. The government aims to extend the fibre-optic network to rural areas.

While ADSL2+ with speeds up to 20/1 Mbit/s is still the most widely common subscription available in Italy, the main telephone company in the country (TIM or Telecom Italia) is investing 12 billion € in the period of 2016-2018, with the aim of reaching 84% of the homes with broadband connection (100 Mbit/s) before the end of 2018.[2] Despite this, there's a debate going because the company is still investing on copper and on the fiber-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) technology, instead of bringing fibre directly to the home everywhere. The FTTC and VDSL2 technologies can currently bring up to 100/20 Mbit/s connections to the final customer.[3][4][5] TIM and Fastweb have plans to increase FTTC speeds with vectoring to up to 200/50 Mbit/s streams before the end of 2016.[6]

The FTTH network is developing as well, with a standard 1000/100 Mbit/s connection [7] (1000/200 Mbit/s with Vodafone [8][9]) at the same subscription price as FTTC .

Figures published by the National Institute of Statistics showed in late-2011 that 58.8% of Italian families had a personal computer (up slightly from 57.6% in 2010);[10] 54.5% had access to the internet (up from 52.4%);[10] and 45.8% had broadband access (up from 43.4%).[10] Over one-quarter (26.3%, down slightly from 26.4% in 2010) of Italian internet users aged fourteen years and older made an online purchase during 2011.[10]

Internet regulation

A sign posted on the door of an internet cafe in Florence regarding Italian Law No. 155 of 31 July 2005

An anti-terrorism law amended in 2005, after the terrorists attacks in Madrid and London,[11] by then-Minister of the Interior Giuseppe Pisanu, restricted the opening of new Wi-Fi Hotspots,[12] subjecting interested entities to first apply for permission to open at the Police Headquarters of jurisdiction[12][13] and that such hotspot's customers were subjected to identification, by presenting an identity document.[12][13] This inhibited the opening of hotspots across Italy,[11] with a number of hotspots 5 times lower than France and the conspicuous absence of Municipal wireless networks.[11] Considering the above-mentioned law was too strict, a proposed law was proposed to facilitate the opening and access of Wi-Fi Hotspots,[14] although it was not clear how it should have been possible.[14] Only at the end of 2010, a bipartisan bill allowed for the repeal of article 7 of the Pisanu law.[15] The abrogation was finally made by the Monti Cabinet, which has not entered the renewal extension in the decree of 2011, so that the provision is no longer in force since January 1, 2012.[16][17]

Currently internet filtering in Italy is applied on web-sites which display child pornography[18] and on some P2P web-sites (including the most famous The Pirate Bay). A pervasive filtering is applied to those gambling websites that don't have a local license to operate in Italy.[19]

In February 2023, Italy's Data Protection Authority (GPDP) banned the AI chatbot Replika, citing potential risks it posed to minors and people with emotional fragility.[20] The next month, the GPDP ordered OpenAI to block ChatGPT, citing privacy concerns in how personal data is processed and failure to verify if users are over age 13.[21] OpenAI restored access to its chatbot by the end of April, saying it had addressed or clarified the GPDP's concerns.[22]

Copyright and content regulation

In October 2020, the vice secretary of the Conte II Cabinet Andrea Martella proposed to make mandatory for over-the-top media service the payment of copyright royalties in favour of the content producers,[23] and also to introduce a web tax to provide public schools and for individual citizens with discounted subscriptions of Italian online and paper journals.[24] He also suggested to speed up the conversion decrees of the EU copyright directive, to extend the censoring powers of the Italian public authority Agcom in order to contrast online piracy and fake news,[23] and to establish a minimum wage for unstable journalists of the Italian newspapers.[25]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Will Italy have the best FTTH network in Europe? Archived 2014-04-07 at the Wayback Machine FTTH Council Europe. Web. 02 Dec. 2012.
  2. ↑ "TIM festeggia l'Internet Day con 1.100 comuni connessi in fibra ottica". Telecom Italia Group. April 29, 2016.
  3. ↑ "TIM SMART SUPERFIBRA". TIM.it. June 5, 2016.
  4. ↑ "Vodafone Super Fibra Family 100 Mega". Vodafone. June 5, 2016.
  5. ↑ "Fastweb fibra ottica". Fastweb. June 5, 2016.
  6. ↑ "FASTWEB lancia il nuovo piano in fibra ottica per portare 200 megabit al secondo al 50% della popolazione". FASTWEB company. April 5, 2016.
  7. ↑ "TIM profilo 300/20".
  8. ↑ "Vodafone lancia la prima offerta fibra a 500 Mbps". April 28, 2016.
  9. ↑ "Vodafone News - Vodafone Lab - Vodafone lancia IperFibra, la prima offerta fino a 1 Gigabit al secondo in Italia". vodafone lab - La community che sperimenta e condivide (in Italian). Retrieved 2017-10-18.
  10. 1 2 3 4 (in Italian) Cittadini e nuove tecnologie. Istituto nazionale di statistica. Web. 01 Dec. 2012.
  11. 1 2 3 "Libero web senza fili". L'espresso (in Italian). 2009-11-26. Archived from the original on 2012-02-29. Retrieved 2009-11-27.
  12. 1 2 3 "Conversione in legge, con modificazioni, del decreto-legge 27 luglio 2005, n. 144, recante misure urgenti per il contrasto del terrorismo internazionale" (in Italian). Italian Chamber of Deputies. 2005-08-01. Archived from the original on 2010-02-09. Retrieved 2009-11-27.
  13. 1 2 "Diffondiamo il Wi-Fi, proposta di legge bi-partisan" (in Italian). Tom's Hardware. 2009-11-26. Archived from the original on 2009-11-28. Retrieved 2009-11-27.
  14. 1 2 "WiFi, Cassinelli libera tutti?" (in Italian). Punto Informatico. 2009-11-26. Retrieved 2009-11-27.
  15. ↑ Decreto Pisanu, pronto il cestino? Punto Informatico 10/10/2010
  16. ↑ DECRETO-LEGGE 29 dicembre 2011, n. 216, in G.U. n. 302 del 29 dicembre 2011 - in vigore dal 29 dicembre 2011 - Proroga di termini previsti da disposizioni legislative.
  17. ↑ Zambardino, La repubblica, December 31, 2011
  18. ↑ "Italy enacts law to block child porn Web sites". Reuters. 2007-01-02. Retrieved 2011-02-23.
  19. ↑ "Home - Agenzia delle dogane e dei Monopoli". www.aams.gov.it. Retrieved 2011-02-23.
  20. ↑ Pollina, Elvira; Coulter, Martin (3 February 2023). "Italy bans U.S.-based AI chatbot Replika from using personal data". Reuters.
  21. ↑ D'Emilio, Frances; O'Brient, Matt (31 March 2023). "Italy temporarily blocks ChatGPT over privacy concerns". Associated Press. Retrieved 1 April 2023.
  22. ↑ Robertson, Adi (28 April 2023). "ChatGPT returns to Italy after ban". The Verge. Retrieved 30 April 2023.
  23. 1 2 "Martella oggi in audizione: "Il sistema ha retto grazie al congelamento degli effetti dei tagli"" (in Italian). April 19, 2020. Retrieved October 1, 2020.
  24. ↑ "Editoria, Andrea Martella: "Nuova legge subito dopo la manovra"". Huffington Post (in Italian). October 18, 2019.
  25. ↑ "Gedi-Exor? Martella: "Testate patrimonio del Paese, mantenere l'occupazione"". Il Sole 24 Ore (in Italian). December 3, 2019. Retrieved October 1, 2020.
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