Broadband Data

Google Enters Free Speed Test Marketplace with Academic Collaboration

WASHINGTON, January 27, 2009 – Search giant Google is preparing to enter the market for free broadband speed tests, through a collaboration with the university research consortium PlanetLab, and the New America Foundation.

Published

15 years ago

January 27, 2009

Drew Clark

Google is set to announce the collaboration on Wednesday, at an event at the New America Foundation in Washington, and keynoted by Vint Cerf, vice president and chief internet evangelist at Google.

Google follows BroadbandCensus.com, which launched in January 2008, in providing a free internet speed tests to consumers.

BroadbandCensus.com’s speed test allows internet uses to test actual speeds and compare them to the speeds that are promised by their internet providers.

Google and the other participants in the research consortium will be using the same speed test – the Network Diagnostic Tool of Internet2 – that was deployed by BroadbandCensus.com beginning in February 2008.

As with BroadbandCensus.com, Google apparently seeks to make the data publicly available, as a means of providing transparency into the operations of internet providers.

“Transparency has always been an essential component of the Internet’s success,” reads the press release announcing Wednesday’s event. “To remedy today’s information gap, researchers need resources to develop new analytical tools.”

“At this event, speakers will discuss the importance of advancing research in network measurement tools and introduce new developments that will benefit end-users, innovators, and policymakers,” reads the release.

The organizational framework for the speed tests and other network tools is to be called the Measurement Lab, and is expected to be hosted through PlanetLab at Princeton University.

Among the individuals also scheduled to speak at the event include Larry Peterson, chair of the Department of Computer Science at Princeton, and Princeton Professor Ed Felten, director of the Center for Information Technology Policy.

In addition to the NDT speed test, the Measurement Lab will allow internet users to use two additional tests, “Glasnost,” developed by the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems, in Kaiserlautern and Saarbrucken, Germany, and the NPAD diagnostic service, Pathdiag, developed by the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center.

According to the Max Plank Institute web site, Glastnost “creates a BitTorrent-like transfer between your machine and our server, and determines whether or not your [internet service provider] is limiting such traffic. This is a first step towards making traffic manipulation by ISPs more transparent to their customers.”

In fall 2007, through tests conducted by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Comcast was found to have been interfering in the packet transfers by users of BitTorrent, a peer-to-peer software system. After a complaint, the FCC punished Comcast in August 2008.

Comcast’s system of network management – which the cable operator says it has discontinued – became Exhibit A in the battle over network neutrality, or the procedures by which broadband carriers can prioritize internet traffic.

Over the past several years, Google has opposed attempts by carriers to circumvent Net neutrality.

According to the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center web site, NPAD’s Pathdiag “is designed to easily and accurately diagnose problems in the last-mile network and end-systems that are the most common causes of all severe performance degradation over long end-to-end paths.”

“Our goal is to make the test procedures easy enough and the report it generates clear enough to be suitable for end-users who are not networking experts,” the PSC web site continues.

Google, PlanetLab, New America Foundation and the software engineers that designed each of the three tools are involved in the new venture.

“We are listed as an advisory board” to the project, said Rich Carlson, a network engineer at Internet2. “Google is providing some rackspace. Google is providing the funding to purchase the hardware, and the network connectivity to connect [the tests] to the commercial internet.”

BroadbandCensus.com’s goal in allowing internet users to test their speeds is to provide a publicly-available repository of speeds, prices, availability, reliability and competition in measuring local broadband.

In Taking the Broadband Census, individuals answer a brief questionnaire about their location, their carriers and the quality of service. They are also invited to comment on their carrier.

Information about all speed tests conducted on BroadbandCensus.com are immediately publicly available, both by carrier and by ZIP code, after the tests are concluded. All the content on BroadbandCensus.com is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License, allowing it to be republished and reused for free by academics and by local government agencies.

BroadbandCensus.com reported about its experience using the Internet2’s NDT speed test, and made a presentation about its findings at an Internet2/Joint Techs Conference in Lincoln, Neb., in July 2008.

Carlson said he believes that Google will also make its data publicly available. “My intention is to make that data available, as soon as possible.”

Carlson said that he and Internet2 believed it was important to “get the data collection started, and see what kind of community resources can be put to bear, to do some analysis” about internet traffic.

Other academic organizations, including Virginia Tech’s eCorridors Program, have also used the NDT speed test, which is open source software. Speed test data from eCorridors is also publicly available.

Google announced its interest in the speed test marketplace at Supernova conference in June 2008, and the collaboration apparently took root after an invitation-only conference Google organized in Mountain View, Calif., in the summer of 2008.

More details are expected to be made available at the Wednesday New America Foundation event.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt is chairman of the New America Foundation, and Schmidt personally has made significant financial contributions to the think tank.

The Foundation has taken stances congruent with positions that Google been pushing. For example, the think tank strongly advocated for the FCC to make vacant television channels available for unlicensed use by internet devices, a position endorsed by Google.

Editor’s Note

Internet2 provided technical direction about deploying a speed test to BroadbandCensus.com, and the eCorridors Program at Virginia Tech has provided encouragement and technical advice in taking the Broadband Census to a national audience. See BroadbandCensus.com supporters.

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Drew Clark

Breakfast Media LLC CEO Drew Clark has led the Broadband Breakfast community since 2008. An early proponent of better broadband, better lives, he initially founded the Broadband Census crowdsourcing campaign for broadband data. As Editor and Publisher, Clark presides over the leading media company advocating for higher-capacity internet everywhere through topical, timely and intelligent coverage. Clark also served as head of the Partnership for a Connected Illinois, a state broadband initiative.

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Broadband Data

Many Data Points Required for Broadband Planning, Event Hears

An assortment of data will be useful in all phases of the broadband planning process.

Published

5 months ago

June 22, 2023

Teralyn Whipple

Photo of Kristin Lardy of CORI

WASHINGTON, June 22, 2023 – Providers must invest in data collection for physical location, existing network infrastructure, and community needs and interests, advised the Center on Rural Innovation at a panel discussion Thursday.

Physical location data includes a map of all buildings, identification of which buildings are eligible for or need broadband service, what services are provided, and fiber drop distances. Providers will need this information to understand how to utilize federal investment money from the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program, which award amounts are set to be announced later this month.

Not only will providers need information on poles, towers, hubs, and fiber infrastructure ownership but they will also need insight on community needs and interests, said presenters. These include barriers to access and customer interest in a new internet provider.

This assortment of data will be useful in all phases of the planning process, said Kirstin Lardy, broadband consultant at CORI, such as the market analysis phase for penetration assumptions, network design for projected costs, and financial modeling for forecast of costs and revenues.

Data can be collected from federal resources like the Federal Communication Commission’s national broadband and funding map, which can be used to determine what areas are covered by federal subsidy and where communities should focus their efforts.

Further data is also available at the municipal level which often hosts information about location of structures, types of structures, vacant lots, addresses, pole data, power distribution paths and rights of way.

Engaging with community anchor institutions is essential to building comprehensive and useful data sets, added Kristen Corra, policy counsel at the Schools, Health and Libraries Broadband Coalition. She urged providers to work with localities to gather information.

States may also collect data directly from providers and users through speed tests, surveys, and censuses.

Broadband Data

Ookla Has Verizon as Fastest Q1 Fixed Provider, T-Mobile Takes Top Spot for Mobile

T-Mobile was also named the most consistent mobile operator and topped 5G download speeds.

Published

2 years ago

April 18, 2022

T.J. York

Image of Speedtest from May 2017 by Daniel Aleksandersen used with permission

WASHINGTON, April 18, 2022 – A market report released Friday by performance metrics web service Ookla named Verizon the fastest fixed broadband provider in the U.S. during the first quarter of 2022, and T-Mobile as the fastest mobile operator during the same period.

Verizon had a median download speed of 184.36 Mbps, edging out Comcast Xfinity’s speed of 179.12 Mbps. T-Mobile’s median mobile speed was 117.83 Mbps.

Verizon had the lowest latency of all providers, according to Ookla, well ahead of Xfinity’s fourth place ranking, yet sat at third for consistency behind both Xfinity and Spectrum.

T-Mobile was also the most consistent mobile operator during the first quarter, achieving an Ookla consistency score of 88.3 percent, which along with median download speed represented an increase from the fourth quarter of 2021.

The company also achieved the fastest median 5G download speed, coming in at 191.12 Mbps.

Verizon also notably increased its 5G download speed from its Q4 metric, attributed in part to the turning on of new C-band spectrum in January following deployment delays and protest from airlines. For mobile speeds, it stood in second behind T-Mobile, bumping AT&T to a standing of third. These rankings were the same for mobile measures of latency and consistency.

Yet on 5G availability, AT&T remains ahead of Verizon.

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra came in as the fastest popular device in the country, running at 116.33 Mbps.

Ookla is a sponsor of Broadband Breakfast.

Broadband Data

FCC’s Rosenworcel: Broadband Nutrition Labels Will Create New Generation of Informed Buyers

The FCC hopes companies will make it easier for consumers to choose a broadband plan that fits their needs.

Published

2 years ago

March 11, 2022

Justin Perkins

Photo of Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel speaking at the Mobile World Conference 2022 in Barcelona

WASHINGTON, March 11, 2022 – The Federal Communications Commission’s broadband nutrition labels will usher in a new era where buyers have simple information about what they’re buying, agency Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said Friday.

Consumers should know what they’re signing up for when they spend hundreds “or even thousands” of dollars per year for internet service. She was speaking at Friday’s commission hearing on its so-called broadband nutrition label initiative.

The hearing comes on top of a public comment period on the initiative. Many providers are pushing for more flexible regulations on compliance.

When consumers choose a broadband provider for their household, Rosenworcel said may people make decisions with “sometimes incomplete and inaccurate information.”

“The problem for broadband consumers isn’t a total lack of information, but there’s loads of fine print,” Rosenworcel said. “It can be difficult to know exactly what we are paying for and these disclosures are not consistent from carrier to carrier,” which makes comparing prices and services harder and more time-consuming for consumers.

The comments built on other recent speeches by Rosenworcel promoting the initiative, encouraging state attorneys general’s ability to enforce companies’ commitments through their states’ consumer protection statutes.

The FCC began a plan in 2015 for broadband labels that was voluntary. The new initiative directed by last year’s bipartisan infrastructure law makes this effort mandatory for broadband providers.

Matt Sayre, managing director of cross sector economic development firm Onward Eugene, said residents in rural Oregon would benefit from simple information when considering broadband providers. During a time where dial-up and satellite-based offerings were primarily available, Sayre said his neighbors “never used terms like latency or packet loss.”

“These are important aspects of good internet service, but not easily understood by most people,” Sayre said. “Citizens understood they needed better service but were uncertain about what tier of service they needed. This is where broadband labels can be very helpful.”

The hearing was the agency’s first on the initiative.