Mobile Internet in Italia: Bari overtakes Milan and Rome, travelling slows down

There is one number that, more than others, tells the story of how our connected life is changing: 331 megabits per second. This is the average download speed recorded stationary in the static measurements of the MisuraInternet Mobile campaign, the project promoted by the Communications Guarantee Authority (Agcom) and carried out in the field by the Ugo Bordoni Foundation. In upload, the average is about 58 Mbps. When moving around - the so-called dynamic urban measurements - the average drops to around 269 Mbps download and 54 Mbps upload.

These are values that, translated into everyday language, mean streaming, video calls and 'heavy' downloads increasingly within reach. But with one fundamental premise: the report insists that drive tests are a snapshot in specific places and at specific times, influenced by conditions that cannot always be replicated. Useful, yes, to understand how the network fares in controlled scenarios.

The methodological heart of the campaign is the 'best technology' approach: we measure what networks can offer with the best available technology at that point (up to 5G), using a test set-up designed to estimate performance. A way of putting everyone in front of the same mirror. But even here there is a caveat: if the user has a lower-performing offer or if the most advanced technology is less widespread (and therefore less traffic-draining), the actual experience may diverge - and not a little - from the lab results on the road.

The campaign covers 45 cities and covers the mobile networks of Fastweb, Iliad, Tim, Vodafone and Wind Tre, operators with their own infrastructure and population coverage of at least 50 per cent. In the overall design, 10 cities are also measured stationary (static), while 35 are measured only in motion, following routes constrained by 'way-points' to make the tests comparable.

Looking at the results in static mode, in addition to the national averages, interesting differences emerge between the large cities measured. In the disclosure summary attached to the report, for example, Bari marks the highest figure among those mentioned: 416 Mbps download and 75 Mbps upload. Very high values also follow in Turin (355/67), Bologna (347/58) and Florence (343/52). Milan is at 329/64, Rome 325/52, Palermo 299/54 and Naples 284/51.