ISPs love to fib about the average speed of their networks. These fibs make for a great marketing tool along with some bonus cash in their pockets for contracts and other opportunities. They also like to make a lot of promises in regards to how quickly they are rolling out their upgrades “this year. Err, maybe next year. Ok, maybe the year after that. Well, eventually”.
The future of broadband has been a popular discussion as of late, From delayed rollouts, to the Senate pressuring the FCC to increase the min speeds required for something to be defined as “broadband”, to companies like AT&T trying everything they can to fight against any changes to these outdated definitions.
Clearly, something has captured the FCC’s attention. In fact, so much that the FCC has developed a proprietary speed test app (available for both Android or iOS) to help test your mobile and home networks with (make sure your phone is on your WiFi network in order to test your home’s internet speeds). This app will (hopefully) allow them to get a much better idea of how fast average speeds across America really are. To be able to get some better numbers between the ISPs to see where their networks are performing well or falling behind.
The FCC hasn’t really said that the information is going to change any policies or definitions, but the sudden push for awareness does seem like convenient timing.
“The information collected through the app will help to inform the FCC’s efforts to provide improved coverage information to the public. We expect that some of the information collected through the app will be incorporated into the Commission’s broadband data collection systems, including challenges to provider-submitted maps and our collection of additional crowdsourced data.” — FCC
Care to offer a little more information? The FCC has set up a form that allows you to share your broadband experience with them. Good or bad, you can share your thoughts quickly and easily in 7 to 9 steps (fields). You can even attach screenshots or anything else to back your experience with. So if you think your ISP is grossly fibbing about what they offer, or you feel they are doing a better job than expected, you can use this form to tell your story.
Hopefully, the FCC will consider the Senate’s proposal and help usher us ahead into the future of IoT, hi-res streaming, and other high-bandwidth activities that are continuing to grow extensively each year. Maybe this will help shed some light on these decisions. Or, maybe it really does have nothing to do with current trending news.
