California Offers Mobile Broadband Testing App
California is getting into the crowdsourced mobile broadband testing business, announcing Monday a free app Android users can download to test their connections. CalSPEED, funded by an NTIA grant, will let users take download, upload, latency and jitter measurements of the networks of AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon. “This marks the first time the public and state officials will have access to such extensive information, generally only known by the companies themselves,” a California Public Utilities Commission spokeswoman said. The app is available at http://bit.ly/13hWph7.
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By combining CalSPEED with the state’s interactive Broadband Availability Map, the CPUC hopes consumers can better predict the Internet service they can expect at a given location, said Ryan Dulin, director of the commission’s communications division. “This will help consumers avoid costly termination fees they might otherwise incur by choosing a provider whose service does not meet their needs.” The CPUC and state legislators will also use CalSPEED results, he said, to help decide which areas need more funding for broadband buildout.
CalSPEED is far more extensive than other apps, said Ken Biba, chief technology officer of Novarum, who consulted on the project. Unlike proprietary third-party systems, it uses standard network testing tools that provide transparency of methodology, he told us. It measures multiple server locations across the Internet so it measures not just the wireless access speed, but “the real user speed including wired Internet backhaul,” he said. In the old days of 3G, the latency differences on different carriers were not as important since the wireless networks were so slow, he said, “but with modern LTE networks, these backhaul differences can often dominate latency.”
The state plans to combine the results from the app with structured measurements taken at 1,200 locations throughout California every six months. That will allow them to construct an independent model of wireless coverage and measured quality of service to compare against each carrier’s self-described coverage and service quality, Biba said. The integrated system will compensate for “selection bias,” in which users run tests only where they have service and where they wish to test, he said. That will help make up for the fact that in areas of poor service, there would effectively be no data, he said. “And without discovering the limits of service, there is no way to validate coverage areas,” he said. “No other measurement system can do this."
The raw results of the structured tests include GPS coordinates since they are outdoor public locations, and discussion is still ongoing about whether to release the crowdsourced GPS location, Biba said. “Strong measures” are in place to protect user privacy, regarding what data are collected, retained for analysis, and then released, he said.
The state has done two structured tests, in the spring and fall of 2012, officials said, and is in the midst of a third test. There are no results from the crowdsourced data yet, since it was just released, they said. The project is funded through a $1.5 million NTIA grant through the end of 2014, which funds server usage, data management and analysis, and app development, officials said.
The state has heard about the FCC’s upcoming mobile app test that takes similar measurements, but hasn’t been able to collaborate with the agency, said Michael Morris of the CPUC, who manages the mobile measurement program. “We've tried to reach out to the FCC; I don’t know that we've been real successful connecting,” he told us. The CPUC included analysis information from the drive tests they've run in comments filed with the commission. “But in terms of getting in on the loop of what all they were going to do with their app, no, I have not gotten linked in,” he said. “But I have reached out to them, and they are aware of ours."
The FCC’s Android app will take measurements in the background; the CPUC considered doing background testing but ultimately decided against it, Morris said. They wanted to be able to let a user differentiate between inside and outside information, and they also wanted to make sure the app didn’t suck up a lot of the users’ data cap without their knowledge, he said. “We don’t want them paying a lot.”
Mobile testing is “really important” in terms of the IP transition, Morris said. “As far as I can tell, the IP transition is all about being able to do VoIP over LTE,” he said. As big carriers transition to using LTE for local loops where it’s too expensive to put in fiber or maintain the copper, it’s ever more important to measure the networks’ ability to properly handle advanced services like VoIP, Morris said. With CalSPEED and the CPUC’s other measurement programs, Morris hopes to be able to ensure “we don’t inadvertently let an IP divide develop,” he said.