SamKnows Report Says ISPs Meet, Exceeding Advertised Speeds

The study was done in part because Chairman Julius Genachowski was skeptical that providers were actually providing speeds they were advertising. In October, he said that “many consumers experience Internet speed in their homes that’s as low as half of the advertised speeds.” Genachowski repackaged the study as a kind of consumer helpline. He released a step-by-step guide with the stated goal of helping consumers know how to choose appropriate broadband speeds. “For consumers, choosing the right broadband service can be a daunting task. Today, it gets a little bit easier,” Genachowski said at a Best Buy store in Washington Tuesday.

Longtime cable lawyer Steve Effros said Genachowski should have backtracked from the agency’s previous comments. “I'm just fascinated by the fact that the commission doesn’t seem willing to acknowledge that the accusations they've been making over the last two years simply weren’t supportable and instead were taking the credit for service improvements that actually have been there all along,” Effros told us. “I think it’s great that the commission has finally gotten data showing that in fact consumers are finally getting what they're paid for -- and in some cases even more.”

Results of the study began trickling in through the summer and some in industry were worried that Genachowski and aides were trying to rescue bad news from the study, but they were thrilled with the results. It ought to “debunk the conventional mythology that ISPs are delivering far less than speeds they advertise,” said AT&T Vice President Bob Quinn on the company’s blog. “Unfortunately, that mythology grew out of an unscientific and unreliable report that was picked up and repeated by some credible sources in the past, even making its way into the National Broadband Plan. Of course, real facts will not be enough to satisfy everyone. Some of the so-called public interest groups actually began bashing the report a couple of weeks ago (apparently you don’t have to actually see a report before you begin attacking its findings). Like other conspiracy theorists, those consumer groups are wedded to the mythology and won’t let things like pesky facts get in their way.”

The NCTA said the report “confirms that cable operators are delivering world-class services to their customers.” The SamKnows data should be kept “in perspective,” Executive Vice President James Assey said on a blog. “The test involved only a small fraction of the ISPs operating in the United States (and only covered wireline providers), each ISP had only a small number of test panelists, and the report covers only one month of performance data,” he said. “Further analysis of the data is needed to ensure that the testing process fairly and accurately measured the performance of each ISP."

The New America Foundation, which had attacked the SamKnows study (CD July 20 p7), said the results demanded truth-in-advertising and -billing rules. “The FCC’s report documents considerable variation among ISP’s advertised speeds and actual broadband speeds,” Director Sascha Meinrath said. “According to the report, a select few providers appear to be meeting their advertised speeds, but, most others are failing to do so. What the FCC’s report makes clear is that there is an immediate need for disclosure and transparency to consumers regarding the expected performance of the Internet services they are purchasing."

The FCC “should be pleased with the results” of the SamKnows study, Free State Foundation President Randolph May by email. “While I am not sure this type of undertaking is something the FCC needs to be doing on any long-term basis, as opposed to others in the private or non-profit sectors, I think the Chairman deserves credit for being gracious in his Best Buy remarks in acknowledging the survey results say positive things about the industry.”