Not always, but its better than an unelected group of officials who get to determine so much.
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FCC Asks Americans to Use FCC Speed Test App to Measure U.S. Broadband Availability
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Not always, but its better than an unelected group of officials who get to determine so much.
Unless they randomize the servers they are connecting to, this will be so incredibly easily gamed, it will be practically worthless.
Anyone remember Charter, and Comcast 'padding' their speed tests to make it seem like they were faster? And someone being throttled would show fast speeds, but their 'other traffic' would be practically crawling.
This is almost embarrassing...
Anyone remember Charter, and Comcast 'padding' their speed tests to make it seem like they were faster? And someone being throttled would show fast speeds, but their 'other traffic' would be practically crawling.
This is almost embarrassing...
There are plenty of ways to game SpeedTest if you're an ISP. Hosting the servers on your own network is the most obvious. Once you do that you can QoS access to the server so traffic to them has priority. That's pretty much impossible for anyone to detect.
The FCC speed test regulations had speed tests to various known servers, but I'm not sure if this app is using those servers or something else.
ISPs generally prioritize traffic to speed test sites. You might be lucky with your ISP, but many people don't get what they are paying for. When traffic is heavy, they will prioritize streaming services lower, and speed test sites higher, so there call centers don't get as swamped. Fast.com is hosted by Netflix and you can see if your ISP is throttling streaming services. https://qz.com/688033/netflix-launc...t-so-you-can-go-shame-your-internet-provider/
I might have been wrong about ISP paying, but the end result is the same.
It's from the federal creative content agency. There is nothing to worry about.
Hey...u guys forgot to mention works great with m1 macs, not just iPhones and iPads, tried it works great,
The Federal Communications Commission today called on people to test their internet speeds with the FCC Speed Test app to further its research into broadband availability through the Measuring Broadband America Program.
The FCC says that the data collected on broadband network performance across the United States will help its efforts to provide improved coverage information to the public.The app, which is available on iPhone and iPad, allows consumers to measure the speeds of their mobile and in-home broadband networks. It evaluates download and upload speed, latency, jitter, and packet loss, and it tracks speed data over time.
In addition to providing the FCC with granular broadband deployment data, in the future, it will be used to challenge provider-submitted maps when Broadband Data Collection Systems become available.
Article Link: FCC Asks People to Use FCC Speed Test App to Measure U.S. Broadband Availability
People are scared of potentially giving the government, who knows everything about you already, any info. But they’re ok with private companies selling who knows what information, when using their speed test.
Splendid! My parents, who live out in the sticks, can't get high-speed internet because the cable company that owns the territory (COX) won't run the lines due to cost. They're too far out for DSL and the phone company doesn't care either. This app will do diddlysquat for them.
That funny because they gave you the number.... seriously, it doesn't ask for any information.
Looks like the comments are 4 pages deep but just confirming what a few people have said...
This coming from a very high source at WarnerMedia where I work ... “Speedtest.net gives you different results depending what the provider wants them to say. If you’re paying for gig speeds on AT&T, speed test will tell you you’re getting that when in reality it’s being choked and the speeds are much less ... a more reliable source is speed of.me”
This is without me mentioning the FCC thing ... let’s hope they stay unbiased.
This coming from a very high source at WarnerMedia where I work ... “Speedtest.net gives you different results depending what the provider wants them to say. If you’re paying for gig speeds on AT&T, speed test will tell you you’re getting that when in reality it’s being choked and the speeds are much less ... a more reliable source is speed of.me”
This is without me mentioning the FCC thing ... let’s hope they stay unbiased.
110 years ago people living in rural areas of the country had no phones the government created the rural phone project to have people have a phone no matter where you live. Also the aging copper att infrastructure needs badly to be upgraded to fiber. It is crazy that we are still using copper lines when fiber optics was created 70 years ago. Time for the county to upgrade. I want a hard line not sat or wireless that is effected by weather or congestion.
SpeedTest.net can't simply lie about the number. You can double check that your system really is sending/receiving the right number of bits/sec. The ISP could give preferential QoS to SpeedTest.net traffic (or the FCC one). This is also detectable: Run the speed test through a fast VPN. Your ISP won't know it's a speed test. Or run your own file transfer to a server you have elsewhere.
Of course, maybe they're gaming it anyway and not caring about the few people who notice.
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No, if ISPs are fudging results, it's by prioritizing speed test traffic. Otherwise, if SpeedTest.net is telling you 100mbit/s and you open Activity Monitor and see 2mbit/s actually coming in, 😳
THAT got me thinking more than it being an FCC application! First ran across this story on another site but figured 'App Store' so some defense in place; then saw the name of the developer site and how old some of the review are....and NO privacy (nutrition) label!
