Annual Report Download Speed Retest

THE QUICK INFORMATION

Please retest your download speeds at M-LAB and enter the results in the 2011 annual report. In January, I had asked you in January to test on Ookla at the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) broadband speed test site in preparation for the annual report.

 DETAILS

The top half of the webpage is blank. Scroll down and you will locate the start button. Ignore the Test Your Internet Connection link on the left hand side. Accessing it will take three clicks to return to the identical page. Test when school day has not started (Question F12) and at the busiest period (Question F13) and record which range you will select for each question.

a. Less than 128 Kbps
b. 129Kpbs - 256 Kpbs
c. 257 Kpbs - 768 Kbps
d. 769 Kbps - 1.4 Mbps
e. 1.5 Mbps
f.  1.6 Mbps - 5.0 Mbps
g. 6.0 Mbps - 10 Mpbs
h. Greater than 10 Mbps
i. Don't know

If you encounter problems at the M-LAB speed test, contact Thomas Gideon via his email gideon@newamerica.net or phone 202-596-3394. He’s the platform manager and responds quickly to any issues he is alerted to.

THE OPTIONAL-TO-READ EXPLANATION WHY THE CHANGE FROM OOKLA?

I learned about M-LAB as I researched reports from public libraries that the FCC broadband test site did not function for Ookla. M-LAB is the second of the two testing applications that are randomly assigned when testing.

The FCC site unreliability seems to have been fixed. However, the FCC broadband test site is scheduled to end February 2013. That would have provided only two years of data, insufficient for good trend analysis. However, in January when I asked you to test, I did not know of any other reliable test sites.  

Both Ookla and M-LAB have their separate tests on their respective websites. The difference between the two tests is highly technical but either is sufficient for our purposes. Ookla is a for-profit firm; M-LAB is a hybrid non-profit partnership/consortium/think tank created for technology researchers. It is backed by, among others, Google, Skype and Amazon.com. Even if Ookla continued to provide the test on the website after 2013, directing 1,400 school libraries and 360 public libraries, who also submit an identical report, to Ookla’s test site, without any intention of purchasing services would be an abuse of the firm’s goodwill. M-LAB staff informed me they welcomed such widespread use because it fits perfectly with the organization’s purpose. They also informed me they intend to maintain the speed test for years.

 Thank you for your cooperation on this.