Fibre is often at the heart of the debate on the country’s digital future, but it does not fully explain why performance lags behind that of other European countries. In his new instant book, Pietro Labriola analyses the contradictions within the sector and highlights the structural issues that are holding back the development of telecommunications in Italy. Read the introduction and download the full version of the book.
Introduction
This text is built on a clear conviction: the business model that currently underpins the telecommunications sector no longer works. Not only does it show evident structural limitations, but above all it is unable to deliver the economic and social step change that Italy expects, despite the significant investments made in digital infrastructure.
This reflection also takes shape in light of the evidence emerging from the FTTH/B Market Panorama in Europe by the FTTH Council Europe, the 2024 and 2025 editions of The State of Digital Communications published by ETNO, and the study Profiling Italy’s Fixed Competitiveness, carried out by Ookla and KPMG in March 2026 and made available to Asstel - the Confindustria association representing the telecommunications supply chain – which has developed, together with KPMG, a collaboration focused on a series of observatories dedicated to the main trends and dynamics of the telecommunications sector, both nationally and internationally.
The data clearly shows that Italy has invested heavily in fiber, yet:
- performance remains below that of the main European countries;
- latency is among the worst in the G7;
- prices are among the lowest in Europe;
- costs are among the highest.
For this reason, I want to put forward three key messages.
Fiber is necessary, but not sufficient.
The quality of connections depends on the entire stack, not just the last mile of infrastructure.
The real gap in Italy lies in the middle mile.
Transport, interconnection and data centers determine latency and actual quality. It is the least visible part, but the one that requires continuous and substantial investment.
Today’s economic model is not sustainable.
High investment levels combined with low returns are pushing the sector toward a structural crisis.
This is the core issue: Italian telecommunications operate with the lowest prices in Europe, among the highest energy costs, and high infrastructure deployment costs. Under these conditions, it becomes difficult to sustain new investments and improve performance.
My objective is to shift the debate - from “how much fiber” to “how to make the system truly work” -and to encourage institutions to take these elements into account in order to remove the constraints that currently limit the sector’s development and its contribution to Italy’s growth.
I have addressed the analysis of technological topics in a simple and direct way because my underlying goal is to make clear:
- where the bottlenecks lie (the middle mile, but also the domestic environment) that affect performance, both actual and perceived;
- which indicators of network quality should be considered;
- the consequences in terms of digital divide (territorial, but not only).
