The FCC launched its consumer broadband test on http://www.broadband.gov/ today. The site utilizes the measurement platform co-developed by the New America Foundation's Open Technology Initiative and gives consumers a way to test the speed and other performance measurements of their broadband connections.
Users will randomly be assigned to use one of two measurement tests. The Network Diagnostic Tool (NDT) is an open-source tool created by Internet2 researchers and hosted on the MeasurementLab.net (M-Lab) platform. M-Lab is an open, distributed server infrastructure developed for researchers to deploy Internet measurement systems and was founded by the New America Foundation's Open Technology Initiative, the PlanetLab Consortium, Google Inc. and academic researchers.
"The M-Lab project exists to further network science, provide key policy-makers with precise and accurate broadband metrics, and empower consumers with key information about their Internet connection," stated Sascha Meinrath, co-founder of Measurement Lab and the Director of the New America Foundation's Open Technology Initiative. "The Network Diagnostic Tool released by the FCC will collect important information about the true state of broadband in the United States."
Among M-Lab's core goals is to advance network research by actively promoting openness and transparency: research tools on M-Lab must publicly publish their source code and the NDT data collected is being made publicly available on the Measurement Lab Data Repository under a "no rights reserved" Creative Commons license. M-Lab believes that open tools and open data access facilitate peer-review, independent analysis, and better network research. Over 2.8 million NDT tests have already been run and M-Lab publicly released the first 500 Gigabytes of data earlier this year. Although, the FCC is asking users to submit their address for internal purposes, the M-Lab site does not collect this information in our public information repository.
"Through using M-Lab's NDT tool, not only is the Commission empowering consumers with vital information regarding actual performance of their broadband connections versus unrealistic 'up to' speeds currently utilized by providers, but also contributing to research that is essential to informing good public policy," offered Benjamin Lennett, Policy Analyst for the Open Technology Initiative.
For more information, visit http://broadband.gov.
For interview requests, please contact Kate Brown at 202-213-7051 or brown@newamerica.net.
About Measurement Lab:
Measurement Lab (M-Lab) is an open, distributed server platform for researchers to deploy Internet measurement tools. The goal of M-Lab is to advance network research and empower the public with useful information about their broadband connections. By enhancing Internet transparency, M-Lab helps sustain a healthy, innovative Internet. For more information, visit http://measurementlab.net.
About the Open Technology Initiative
New America Foundation's Open Technology Initiative formulates policy and regulatory reforms to support open architectures and open source innovations and facilitates the development and implementation of open technologies and communications networks. For more information, visit http://oti.newamerica.net.
About the New America Foundation
The New America Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy institute that invests in new thinkers and new ideas to address the next generation of challenges facing the United States.
