FCC Online Tools Reveal True Broadband Speeds to Consumers
New online tools allowing consumers to measure their broadband speeds and latency are aimed at educating consumers, supplying the FCC with data and encouraging better transparency in the industry, said FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau Chief Joel Gurin. Broadband service providers advertise certain speeds “and most people don’t have any intuitive sense of what that performance is. [The tools] can help people really make a connection between the numerical speed and the experience their getting with broadband,” he said.
The Consumer Broadband Test and the Broadband Dead Zone Report will give users “real-time information about their broadband connection,” and they'll provide the agency with useful data, Chairman Julius Genachowski said in a release. “By informing consumers about their broadband service quality, these tools help eliminate confusion and make the market work more effectively.” The Consumer Broadband Test measures quality indicators like speed and latency. It’s available on the FCC broadband site www.broadband.gov and as a mobile app through the Apple and Android stores, the commission said. By using the Broadband Dead Zone Report, people can submit the addresses of places where broadband can’t be purchased.
The new digital tools are a step in “trying to bring greater transparency to a market that has been among the least transparent,” said Benjamin Lennett, policy analyst for the New America Foundation Open Technology Initiative. Some ISPs have made very modest improvements in their approach to transparency, he said. “It’s clear that some carriers are not interested in a level of transparency that’s going to benefit consumers.” The tool runs on an infrastructure provided by the New American Foundation and Lennett wants the tool to help foster competition. “Maybe people will switch providers,” he said. “This can create opportunities for companies to compete in terms of providing actual performance speeds rather than advertised performance. I hope they would modify their advertising practices to more accurately reflect the speeds that they deliver."
"I would like to see companies actually try to compete in how well they take care of their customers,” said Computer & Communications Industry Association President Ed Black, commending the FCC for focusing on consumer protection. “There are things that customers care about that I'd like to see be a part of the criteria that providers use in offering service.” Black also said that knowing broadband speeds will help consumers “understand when they need a higher speed or a different ISP."
"Internet users deserve to be well-informed about the performance of their broadband connections, and good data is the foundation of sound policy,” Google Chief Internet Evangelist Vint Cerf said on the Google blog.
The information from use of the tests will not be just to the benefit of the FCC and the consumer, Gurin said. “I think the ISPs do have an interest in knowing how their service is being delivered. It’s helpful for both consumer and provider for billing and advertising to be transparent.” “Transparency in all transactions is to the advantage of providers and customers,” said FCC spokeswoman Rosemary Kimball. “Providers do not want confused, unhappy customers.”
While the broadband test is a step in the right direction, the push for more transparency needs to extend beyond the new broadband test, New America’s Lennett said. “Providers must very clearly spell out the limits of their service, including any additional fees, and create very easy-to-understand broadband labeling,” Lennett said. They should “provide this up front to consumers so they can compare services.”
Free Press said the commission should be wary of using information from the tests as a basis for policymaking. The tools “all generate self-selected, non-scientific data,” Research Director Derek Turner said. “We hope as the FCC moves forward with the National Broadband Plan that they act on long-pending conclusions to actually collect meaningful availability and service quality data, like speeds and reliability, from Internet service providers.”