- More ISPs are now offering 1-gig and higher speed tiers thanks to fiber, but consumer routers can't necessarily handle the throughput
- Where consumers take a speed test or place their router can affect the broadband speeds they get
- Broadband 'nutrition' labels can't guarantee consumers will receive the speeds listed on their plan
There’s a difference between the broadband speeds consumers think they’re getting and the service they actually receive, according to Bryan Darr, VP of Government Affairs at Ookla.
Fiber offers throughput and latency that bring “a whole new level of capability to these homes and businesses,” Darr said at an FBA webinar. “But that doesn’t mean people can necessarily experience it,” he added.
The most common connection consumers test on Ookla is Wi-Fi. And most of the Wi-Fi routers people have in their homes are older devices that “aren’t capable of actually handling the throughput speeds” that are being delivered through fiber.
So, even if an ISP offers gigabit speeds, customers aren’t guaranteed to get what they paid for.
“There’s all this talk about last mile. But we shouldn’t forget about the last few yards,” Darr said.
The FCC’s broadband “nutrition” labels can help consumers make more informed decisions about their ISP. The labels must disclose info such as monthly pricing, download and upload speeds and latency in an easy-to-read-manner.
But one issue with the labels is ISPs have no control over “what people perceive as their delivered speeds,” as Darr told Fierce earlier this year.
What ISPs can do however is better educate their subscribers on “how important it is” to upgrade their home devices so they can actually get the speeds listed on their plan, he said.
If a consumer has multiple routers in their house or internet speed boosters, understanding what kind of connection they’ll get is a little trickier.
“Some of these mesh systems that are becoming so popular [are] by policy going to restrict the amount of bandwidth that each individual extender is going to be able to supply,” said Darr. “Because you don’t want one user to suck up all the bandwidth in the house.”
The challenges with speed tests
Ookla’s speed test network spans over 1,500 servers in the U.S. and 16,000 servers globally. The company has embedded its speed test software in “millions of devices that are actually in people’s homes,” which can help operators validate the speeds on their labels, Darr said.
When Ookla evaluates speed test data, it looks at not just the median speeds consumers report but also “the best tests and the worst tests” as ISPs continue to roll out fiber networks, he added.
The FCC recently launched a new speed test app that allows the public to challenge mobile coverage. However, it doesn’t have an equivalent for challenging fixed broadband speeds.
Although the FCC does have a mapping portal where consumers can make a fixed broadband challenge, it only wants speed tests that represent “a direct connection to the ISP gateway in the home,” Darr told Fierce Network.
“Testing speed and latency over a Wi-Fi connection can often show network performance below that which is being delivered to the home,” he said.
In the case of mobile speed tests, the FCC wants consumers to take the test outside at ground level so that “varying building materials and even which floor a user may be on” doesn’t affect the device’s performance.
Not only are a lot of consumers unaware that they can submit coverage challenges to the FCC, but they are uncomfortable doing so because the FCC requires them to disclose personal information, Darr added. Unlike Ookla, which doesn’t collect personally identifiable information.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel noted at a recent hearing that it’s not easy to verify fixed broadband speeds because where a consumer places a router can have “a huge impact” on the service they get.
The farther a user is from the router, the more the router’s signal will naturally weaken, Darr said. And if the signal must pass through walls or furniture, it can “degrade even over a short distance.” Placing the router near a television can also cause interference.
“Because of the wide variability in residential environments, there is no practical way for ISPs to indicate on a broadband consumer label the network performance that will be experienced within a particular home,” he added.
Is there a metric that can detect unreliability in a network? It’s difficult to measure what’s not there, Darr said on the webinar.
“We can see where there are slowdowns in the networks, but if the network simply disappears, people can’t take a speed test on our platform or any other platform,” he concluded.
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