Tthe Federal Communications Commission encourages people to use it his internet speed test app, available free across the country for anyone with an Android or iOS device, so that it can collect more accurate internet speed data for its broadband deployment efforts.
“To reduce the gap between digital and non-notes, we are working to provide a comprehensive, user-friendly broadband dataset,” Acting FCC President Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement today. ‘Expanding the base of consumers using the FCC Speed Test app will enable us to provide improved coverage information to the public and add to the measurement tools we develop to show where broadband really is in the United States is available.
The app works just like other internet speed tests from ookla and Google’simplies push of a button and the app will measure your download and upload speeds. The FCC app is manufactured similar results as Ookla’s in my testing. Coupled to my 5.0 GHz wifi band, the FCC’s app said my download speed was 282 Mbps and my upload speed was 23.4 Mbps. (I pay 400 Mbps lower.) Ookla gave me a result of 270 Mbps lower and 22.0 Mbps higher.
On a 4G LTE connection, however, the FCC app splashed a result of 56.3 Mbps and 10.8 Mbps, while Ookla reported 59.6 Mbps lower and 2.81 Mbps higher.
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One thing the Ookla does not have is the ability to track your mobile data usage. The FCC recently added it to its app, so if you plan to test your internet speed on a 4G or 5G connection instead of wifi, you will know how much data you are using to do so. You can enable or disable this feature, and while it is on, you can also set a mobile data limit, with an option to select what day of the month are you data is recovered based on their billing cycle.
But like Ookla, the FCC’s app also offers users other measurements, such as latency, jitter and packet loss – information that the average internet user may not need, but someone who plays a lot of online games is likely to find it useful, especially if they are playing over the cloud.
The FCC Speed Test app has been around for several years. It was first launched in 2013 for Android devices, and then again in 2014 for iOS devices. The purpose of the app at the time was the same: to Crowdsource Internet and mobile speed data to improve broadband deployment efforts.
It’s not clear what the FCC has been doing with all the data since 2014, or whether it’s even enough, but if the agency keeps in mind that people should use it, it suggests that the app did not work as the FCC . hoped over the past few years.
But your phone is only one way to connect to the internet. You can see that it varies wifi speeds from your laptop or desktop and connecting one of the two to your router via Ethernet will always yield the best results. Telephone connection is only one piece of the puzzle, so if the FCC really wants a comprehensive portrait of internet connection in the US, it will have to look at other data points as well.