Re: FCC releases Internet speed test tool

[Joe Greco <jgreco () ns sol net>]

> On Fri, 12 Mar 2010, Joe Greco wrote:
> > I've gotten strange stuff each time I've tried their tests.  I
> > particularly like the factor of 10 difference in upload speeds.
>
> The FCC is probably doing this because US providers generally don't 
> release actual bandwidth, speeds or latency numbers their consumer
> customers get. 

I understand the point behind the test.

> Advertised numbers often don't mean anything.  If
> providers want to release better data, it might help the FCC understand
> the current environment.
>
> Some US providers have published data for their business customer 
> connections and backbones.

I realize that a high level of participation could result in the FCC
gaining a more complete understanding of broadband penetration, and
specific areas where there are problems.

However, I have some reservations as to whether or not the FCC will be
able to get enough people to participate in this to be able to generate
a meaningful dataset.

Further, major inconsistencies such as what I just pointed out brings 
into question the validity of the test, and therefore the value.
I am not that concerned about the difference between 4Mbps and 5Mbps,
but when there's an order of magnitude difference involved...  on the
same connection...

I would guess, hopefully correctly, that Speedtest.net, Akamai, and
others already have a good handle on broadband speeds, and it seems to
me that the FCC could get a much more thorough picture of per-ISP
performance (which of course isn't street-level) simply by getting these
guys to summarize their results.

As such, the only real value I see the FCC tool offering is the potential
for visibility into things such as DSL speed/distance limitations, but in
order for that to be meaningful, you'd have to get a lot of people to run
the test.

Which brings us back to ...  I'm not entirely sure that this is a useful
strategy.

... JG
-- 
Joe Greco - sol.net Network Services - Milwaukee, WI - http://www.sol.net
"We call it the 'one bite at the apple' rule. Give me one chance [and] then I
won't contact you again." - Direct Marketing Ass'n position on e-mail spam(CNN)
With 24 million small businesses in the US alone, that's way too many apples.