FCC to test data speed claims of wireless carriers

FCC to test data speed claims of wireless carriersAfter its Wednesday proposal of a new program under which the data speed claims of wireless carriers will be tested, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will hold an open meeting on 21 September, 2012, to hear the comments of the industry and the consumers about the proposal for measuring mobile broadband service performance in the US.

The FCC's focus on the wireless world comes after its successful speed tests of fixed broadband, with the agency now getting set to assess mobile data speeds in its joint project with leading US wireless carriers as well as other participants, including public researchers.

The FCC's new program to test data speed claims of wireless carriers will use the same collaborative model that the agency used successfully for its fixed broadband program. The new program will give smartphone users the opportunity to test their wireless connections, and upload the results onto a government data base, which will finally accumulate details about mobile broadband service performance in the country.

Towards that end, at the forthcoming open meeting, the FCC executives will chiefly discuss different methods for testing mobile service, as well as for remote acquisition and analysis of performance data.

About the open meeting, the FCC said in a press release that the discussions will largely pertain to "the technical methods for performance testing of mobile broadband Internet service," along with "methodological approaches to remotely acquiring and analyzing such data, and other methodological considerations for the testing of mobile broadband performance."