Four out of five Americans don't know their broadband
speeds, but the vast majority of users seem to be satisfied with whatever speed
it is.
That is according to a new FCC study released June 1. But
the FCC wants more data from users as it tries to give them more info on what
speeds they are being sold, what speeds they are getting, and what they will
need in a world of streaming video and gamers galore.
Could the end-product be a broadband speed version of the
MPG sticker on a new car? The FCC is not ruling it out.
According to the survey, which is part of the FCC's
initiative to get a better handle on actual broadband speeds compared to
advertised speeds, nine in ten (91%) of respondents said they were either very
or somewhat satisfied with the speed they got at home. That number was only 71%
for mobile broadband, which is not capable of comparable speeds.
The commission also launched two initiatives to better
determine those speeds, which was one of the recommendations of the National
Broadband Plan.
The FCC is asking for 10,000 volunteers to participate in
a study to measure home broadband speed using hardware that will be installed
in their homes across all major ISPs. The results will be compiled in a report,
called "State of Broadband," to be issued next year.
Second, the FCC is issuing a public notice on ways to
measure mobile broadband. "Ultimately, the FCC hopes to develop tests that
help each individual consumer in the U.S. determine his or her own broadband
speed," the agency said.
The FCC took the first steps toward that goal back in
March, when it provided
two speed test consumers could use for their wireless phones.
The survey was of 3,005 adults polled between April 19
and May 2. At a press conference following the survey's release, Joel Gurin,
chief of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, said the in-home test
would gather a raft of data on everything from latency and jitter (which refer
to transmission time) to how fast particular Websites load, though he said
there would be measures to insure consumer privacy.
He did not say whether operators would know exactly when
and where they were being monitored, though he did say operators would have
input on methodology, and that the FCC was already talking with carriers about
the test and expects them to weigh in with some "very productive
ideas."
He said the goal of the test is to help consumers
understand what speeds they need and what speeds they are getting, including
more precise terms than the industry's "blazing fast" and "up
to" qualifiers.
"We believe we need a marketplace where broadband
speed is transparent, advertised accurately and understood," he said. If
operators are going to compete on speed, people need to know what speeds they
need for, say, gaming or streaming video or VoIP, what speeds they are being
offered, and what speeds they are actually getting.
He acknowledged that one of the reasons ISPs use the
"up to" terminology is that speeds can be affected by many variables
outside their control, like the age of the router, or the speed of the
computer, or now many people in the house are online at the same time.
That was one of the industry's issues with the comScore
data the FCC used in the National Broadband Plan to indicate that users were
only getting about half the advertised speed. Gurin said the FCC acknowledged those
issues, which was why it was conducting the new test to get better and more
scientific data.
The FCC test will be of delivery speeds, which means the
speed delivered to the house and before the mitigating factors like number of
users or type of equipment, said Gurin.
Asked whether there could be regulation at the end of the
process -- say, a broadband speed sticker on ISP service -- Gurin said it was
too early to tell but that that was a possibility, as the National Broadband
Plan suggested it might be.
"The FCC survey
shows that 91 percent of subscribers -- an overwhelming majority -- are
satisfied with the speed of their broadband service, a conclusion that is
entirely consistent with many other surveys," said National Cable &
Telecommunications Association President Kyle McSlarrow.
"The survey also
found that many consumers do not know the exact speed of their broadband
service. That is not a surprising result for a competitive marketplace in which
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) of all sizes are consistently upgrading their
networks and boosting the speed of their broadband services. Even if customers
are not able to keep track of these improvements, the survey confirms that they
are pleased with the results," he said.
McSlarrow said
the industry has been "fully engaged" with the FCC and others to come
up with a better performance measure. "We support the initiatives
announced by the Commission today so that consumers will benefit from uniform
broadband speed comparisons among competing providers," he said.
"CTIA is pleased the FCC's survey
confirmed what numerous other third-party surveys have concluded: that 92% of American
consumers are satisfied with their wireless service," said the wireless
association's president, Steve Largent. "As a result of the billions of
dollars spent annually to improve wireless network coverage and speed, consumers
continue to benefit from an increasingly robust wireless broadband experience
and reap the benefits of this innovative wireless ecosystem.
"As the Commission seeks comment on wireless broadband
networks speeds, it will find that the variety of factors that wireless network
engineers contend with every day -- such as congestion, the mobility of
wireless subscribers, weather conditions and the consumer's chosen wireless
device -- all bear on the speeds a consumer receives, by the second, on a
wireless broadband network."
