Internet in Sicily: fibre, SIM cards and backup connections

A Sicilian flat can have gigabit fibre or a copper line that struggles with a video call, and the listing rarely tells you which. Mobile data, on the other hand, is cheap and plentiful: 150 to 300 GB a month for under €10 is normal in Italy. So the sensible setup for a remote worker is a fixed line you have actually tested, a local SIM with a large data allowance, and a plan B for the day one of them fails.

This chapter covers what we could verify in November 2026: the state of fibre, current prepaid offers, what you need to buy a SIM, the speeds that Sicilian coworkings publish, and what nobody has reliable numbers for yet.

Fibre: the national picture, and what we know about Sicily

Italy's fibre rollout runs on two tracks. Private operators build in profitable areas, and the state funds networks in "white areas" (aree bianche), where no operator would invest alone. Two wholesale companies matter most:

• Open Fiber reported, with data at 30 September 2026, 4.549 million customers, FTTH (fibre to the home) ready for sale in 6,462 municipalities and a network of 169,060 km. Its share of the PNRR-funded Piano Italia 1 Giga stood at 1.284 million addresses connected in FTTH plus 231,000 in FWA (fixed wireless), with 2,280 municipalities made sellable. Open Fiber says it won "8 lots in 9 regions" without listing them on that page.
• FiberCop (the former TIM access network) won 7 of the 15 Italia 1 Giga lots, about 3 million of roughly 6.8 million addresses. Its list of regions does not include Sicily. Sicily is lot 8 of the plan, and it went to Open Fiber, which signed the agreement with Infratel Italia on 1 August 2022 (Infratel report of 28 October 2024). The plan's target is at least 1 Gbit/s download and 200 Mbit/s upload.

The older national plan, the Piano Banda Ultralarga, reported at 31 October 2025 (published 26 November 2025) that 5,144 municipalities had passed FTTH testing nationally, plus 212 with prescriptions, and 2,808 FWA sites had been tested. That page gives no Sicilian breakdown.

What this means in practice: we cannot tell you what percentage of homes in Palermo, Catania or Siracusa have FTTH. The official map at bandaultralarga.italia.it is image-only, and coverage is checked address by address. That is why the test-before-you-sign section below matters more than any average.

What a fibre line costs and how fast it can go

Numbeo's crowd-sourced figure for a 60 Mbps+ unlimited home connection, from pages updated between October and November 2026:

Identical values across cities suggest Numbeo fills gaps with estimates, so read these as indicative. As one retail example, iliad's home fibre (iliadbox) advertises up to 5 Gbit/s on FTTH EPON, 2.5 Gbit/s on FTTH GPON and up to 1 Gbit/s in aree bianche, with the actual speed depending on the network at your address.

5G home routers (FWA) as an alternative

If a flat has no fibre, a 5G router can replace it. ho. Mobile advertises a home offer with 500 GB, up to 2 Gbps in 5G, at €12.95/month for existing ho. customers or €14.95 for new customers, plus €5.99 activation (seen 4 November 2026). Other operators sell similar products for countryside houses; we have not checked their prices.

Crowd-sourced speeds: why you will read "18 Mbps"

Nomads.com lists Palermo at 18 Mbps and Catania at 21 Mbps average internet, both labelled "Slow" (seen 4 November 2026). These figures come from users' speed tests, often on café or holiday-flat Wi-Fi, and say little about what a fibre line can do. On the same Palermo page a reviewer reported 80/80 Mbps. Coworkings that publish measurements show far higher numbers, as the table further down shows. Ookla has no Sicilian city pages, but its national figures are a better yardstick: in September 2026 Italy's median was 113.07 Mbps down / 52.71 Mbps up on fixed broadband and 87.07 Mbps down / 10.82 Mbps up on mobile (Speedtest Global Index). We still have no verified city medians.

Mobile operators and prepaid offers

Italy has four network operators: TIM, Vodafone (bought by Swisscom and being merged into Fastweb; ho. Mobile's site refers to "ex Vodafone Italia customers, now part of Fastweb"), WindTre and iliad. The main low-cost brands ride on those networks: ho. Mobile (Vodafone/Fastweb group), Very Mobile (WindTre group) and Kena (TIM group), plus PosteMobile, CoopVoce and Fastweb Mobile.

Prices below were seen on the operators' official pages on 4 November 2026. All include unlimited minutes. Offers change often, and some prices apply only to new numbers or to customers coming from specific operators.

One-off costs to add:

• iliad: SIM activation €9.99.
• ho. Mobile: activation from €2.99 for customers of some operators, otherwise for example €29.90.
• TIM: activation free online for new customers; the online SIM costs €10 one-off (€5 credit plus €5 SIM).
• Very Mobile: we did not record an activation fee.

WindTre (bot protection) could not be checked, and we couldn't read Vodafone's resident plans. Vodafone does publish tourist plans called Dolce Vita, which only customers with a foreign tax code can activate, so they suit newcomers without a codice fiscale: Start €14.95 a month for 100 GB, Pro €19.95 for 200 GB and Ultra €24.95 for 300 GB, all 5G, with 200 minutes and 10 SMS, part of the data usable in the EU (25, 33 and 41 GB) and no activation fee (seen 4 November 2026). We didn't capture the renewal terms, so ask before you activate. Numbeo's crowd-sourced median for a 10 GB+ mobile plan in Sicilian cities is €8–9.33 a month, consistent with the table.

If your SIM is from another EU country, it roams in Italy at domestic prices under the EU "roam like at home" rules, with fair-use limits. For stays of several months a local SIM is usually cheaper and avoids those limits.

Buying a SIM: ID and codice fiscale

Italian operators must identify everyone who buys a SIM. ho. Mobile's official guide is the clearest we found: you need an identity document (it accepts "carta d'identità, passaporto, patente, permesso di soggiorno") plus your codice fiscale, the Italian tax code. Only adults can buy a SIM. If the SIM is delivered to your home, you activate it with a video-selfie identification in the ho. app, or with SPID (Italy's digital identity).

We could not read iliad's and Very's support pages, so treat ho.'s rules as a reasonable guide: bring your passport and your codice fiscale to the shop. If you don't have a codice fiscale yet, get it first; the codice fiscale chapter explains where and how.

eSIM

ho. Mobile confirms eSIM activation. We have not verified eSIM for the other Italian operators, so ask in the shop or check the operator's site. International travel eSIMs such as Airalo or Holafly work on Italian networks and are handy for the first days, before you have a codice fiscale. For a long stay they are usually poorer value than the Italian plans above, which give 150 GB or more for under €10.

Starlink and rural houses

Starlink operates in Italy, and its availability map shows coverage. Starlink's own Italian page didn't render for us. According to SmartWorld (21 May 2026), after an increase announced to Italian subscribers in May 2026 the residential plans cost €35 a month for 100 Mbps (was €29), €45 for 200 Mbps (was €39) and €65 for Residenziale Max (was €59). These are press figures, not checked on Starlink's site, and the kit price varies with promotions: confirm both before you budget. At least one Sicilian workspace runs on it: Spazio COME in Messina, opened in October 2026, uses Starlink, described as ultra-fast.

For a country house the usual options are, in order of what to check first: FTTH from Open Fiber or FiberCop if the address is covered, then 5G FWA, then Starlink. In aree bianche the state-funded rollout uses either FTTH or FWA.

We found no sourced data on summer power cuts or heat-related outages. A small UPS for the router costs little and keeps you online through a short blackout, whatever the cause.

Coworking speeds: a practical benchmark

Few Sicilian coworkings publish real measurements. These are the figures we found in our venue directory, with their source:

Others mention fibre or wired desks without a number: PMO Coworking in Palermo (fibre for desk plans), @localhost in Catania (wired LAN at desks), Camiciotti Coworking in Messina (fibre Wi-Fi plus Ethernet at desks) and The Office in Ragusa (fibre).

Two practical points. First, a coworking with a wired desk is the safest place for an important call in your first week, before you trust your flat's connection. Second, the gap between these numbers and the 18–21 Mbps on Nomads.com tells you the problem is rarely Sicily as such: it is the specific line in the specific building. Prices and opening hours are in our coworking overview for 2026.

Test the connection before you sign a rental

This is the step that saves the most trouble. Before you sign, or at the latest at the viewing:

• Ask the landlord which technology is installed: FTTH (fibre to the flat), FTTC (fibre to the street cabinet, copper to the flat) or FWA (wireless). "Fibra" in a listing can mean any of them.
• Ask for a recent speed test taken on the flat's own connection, ideally a screenshot showing upload as well as download. Upload is what video calls and file sync depend on.
• Run your own test at the viewing, on Wi-Fi in the room where you will work, and wired if there is a cable.
• Check the address on Open Fiber's coverage checker and on the FiberCop coverage map. Both work per address and house number.
• Check mobile signal indoors with your SIM, or with a friend's SIM on another network, in case you need to tether.
• Ask who holds the internet contract and whether it is included in the rent. Taking over or opening a line yourself adds time, and in the first weeks a 5G router may be quicker.
• For short lets, ask the host for the router model and a speed test before booking, and keep the reply in writing.

The housing chapter covers leases, deposits and where to search.

Backup connection checklist

Remote work groups touring Sicily have learnt this the hard way: the Remote 9 road trip round the island in 2023 travelled with three routers because of poor Wi-Fi. You probably need less, but you need something.

• A local SIM with a big allowance (150 GB or more) in your phone, set up for hotspot. With the prices above, that costs €6–12 a month.
• A second network: if your home line runs on one operator, choose a SIM on a different network (TIM, Vodafone/Fastweb, WindTre or iliad) so a single outage doesn't take out both.
• A 5G router or FWA plan if your flat has no FTTH, or if you work long calls daily.
• A UPS for the router and modem.
• A coworking day pass saved in your phone, for the day everything else fails. Day passes start around €9–15 in our directory.
• Offline copies of what you need for the next working day.
• Check the router's location: thick stone walls in old centres can kill Wi-Fi a room away. A cable or a mesh unit often fixes more than a faster contract.

What we still don't know

• FTTH coverage percentages for Palermo, Catania, Siracusa and other cities: not published in a readable form. Check per address.
• City speed medians: Ookla has no Sicilian city pages, and we didn't try nPerf.
• Starlink's official Italian price and kit cost: only the press figures from May 2026 above.
• WindTre prices and Vodafone's resident plans: not verified (Vodafone's tourist plans are above).
• Each operator's SIM rules for foreigners beyond ho. Mobile.
• Summer power cuts: no sourced data.

If you test a flat or a café and want to share the result, we'd like to hear it: real measurements are the gap in every guide we've read.

Next steps: sort your codice fiscale before buying a SIM, then read the housing chapter before you sign anything.