On April 30, 1986, Stefano Trumpy, Luciano Lenzini, and Antonio Blasco Bonito connected to the Internet from the University Center for Electronic Computing (CNUCE) in Pisa. From that day, which now seems so distant, 30 years have passed.

As often happens with great inventions, so it happened with the Internet; initially conceived and used only for military purposes and then extended to some universities, no one had any idea of the revolutionary scope it represented.

Although Italy was a pioneer in the use of this new technology, extending it to the entire territory was a complex and much longer process compared to other countries; among the main reasons is the conformation of the territory, as over 50% of the municipalities have less than 15,000 inhabitants and the population, distributed in patches, did not encourage operators to make large investments.

Today, the Italian population is divided in half; as stated by Honorable Stefano Quintarelli, who participated in the launch of the first Italian provider for the professional market in 1994, “in many areas there is more supply than demand, there is more infrastructure than the market requires. We do not exploit it because we are elderly, we do not speak English. Before the age of 55, we have an Internet penetration and usage higher than the European average. Above the age of 55, the numbers collapse, we have a segment of the population that represents the digitally excluded. Government and businesses must each do their part and the school, with the digital plan, must help win the cultural challenge, because those who are digitally divided culturally are so at home and at work. Teachers must also be taught how to use technologies to support teaching with new methodologies. Companies must understand that, when it comes to the Internet, the past is no longer a line that traces the future. The ways of interacting with customers, suppliers, and collaborators change, and the way of doing business changes. For these reasons, those who do business must adopt a different mentality.”

One thing is certain, although the Internet was not immediately identified as the revolution of the century, today without it many of us would be disoriented and lost; it has created jobs, shortened physical distances, and will certainly play increasingly important roles in everyday life.

On the occasion of Internet Day, tomorrow TIM will give 1GB of 4G data traffic to all its customers, to be used in Italy until midnight of the day following activation.