MyNet.it, COVID AND CONNECTIVITY: MYNET'S FIBER OPTICS GROWTH, Fibra ottica, ADSL

COVID AND CONNECTIVITY: MYNET'S FIBER OPTICS GROWTH

11/30/2020

MANTUA – With thousands of people who, in the wake of the coronavirus epidemic, are working from home, studying, or trying to stay in touch with family members by relying on high-capacity Internet services such as webinars and videoconferencing software, ensuring an uninterrupted flow of connectivity while making the best use of existing resources has become the top priority for telecommunications operators around the world.

"We are operating with the utmost spirit of service in a moment that is very complex and demanding," explains Giovanni Zorzoni, General Director of Mynet, a Mantua-based telecommunications operator and leader throughout northern Italy, with over 30,000 km of proprietary fiber optic cables laid (including 1,100 km of new fiber each year) even in the most remote rural areas. "Since the beginning of the new lockdown in Lombardy, in early November, we have returned to the same traffic levels as the first lockdown, with an increase of +25% in average traffic and peaks of +40%."

"Mynet is engaged daily, during this unprecedented period, in providing companies and households with solutions and services so that they experience no impact on their habits and needs for web browsing. Our network – continues Zorzoni – is resilient, reliable, and secure: being fully proprietary, from local nodes to long-distance ones, allows us to offer a quality service well above market standards."

But let’s look at the data. Regarding the portion of the Lombardy network (32% of the traffic generated by Mynet customers), which also includes the province of Mantua, the use of remote collaboration solutions such as videoconferencing has steadily become widespread in recent months, with a normalized average increase as of 12/31/2020 of 120%, pushing the demand toward ultrabroadband solutions (bandwidth greater than 30 Mbit/s).

The new connections per week are 125 (+60% compared to the March-June 2019 period), reversing the previous trend (70% business – 30% domestic), where the greatest demand came from the business sector, with an increase since March of 500 customers per month (+70% compared to 2019).

With reference instead to the entire northern Italy area in which Mynet operates as a leading telco (Veneto, Trentino Alto Adige, northern Emilia-Romagna, and Lombardy itself), there is a growth in FTTH and FTTC users (together accounting for 90% of sales, with FTTH – true fiber optics – dominating with 70% of connections), to the detriment of traditional ADSL, HDSL, and FWA connections (10% of sales), now relegated to backup where more efficient solutions are not available.

Network expansion this year is also increasing dramatically: by the end of this year, excavation and installation work will reach the very important threshold of 10 million euros.