FAQ

Originally launched as the Performance Monitoring Network the Ofcom SamKnows Broadband Community is a unique system that aims to gather and report statistical data on the performance of broadband providers across the globe. Being able to compare broadband on price, headline speeds (which are still the subject of much controversy!), anecdotal discussion and speed tester results just isn't enough - the Community, with your help, aims to put the information back in the public's hands.

We'll be deploying our rather lovely SamKnows "White boxes"*, an asset to any home, filled with some clever technology to volunteers all around the country. Once connected to your home network the unit will perform a series of tests at regular intervals during the day, every day of the year, with little to no involvement from you, simple! The results of these tests are then fed up to our reporting engine and combined with the results of others on the same ISP to form a national view of how that ISP is performing. We're even working towards future deployments that will allow us to drill down to regional and/or product performance.

This project goes far beyond running just speed tests; our White Boxes are lean, mean, broadband testing machines periodically checking latency, packet loss, DNS query times and failures, web page loading times, as well as the obligatory suite of speed tests. Additional tests are also in development too. The goal is to provide a statistically sound measurement of overall broadband quality.

*It’s actually a black router, but the airline industry have claimed the term “Black Box”!

We're striving for greater transparency within the broadband market. There's simply nothing else like it out there anywhere (to the best of our knowledge anyway!). The statistics will provide a whole new means of looking at broadband services, levelling the playing field and making the industry more accountable and work harder for the consumer.

Presently one might look at a 16Mbps headline speed and assume that it means the service will be good for online gaming. An incorrect assumption is being made here - raw speed is far less important than many think. Latency and packet loss are far more important for online gaming. Our network will measure both of these factors (and many more) across all of the ISPs – greater insight into how the ISP’s perform, more insightful information for the consumer.

Just like Batman (kind of) we've taken it upon ourselves to do this because nobody else has! We think it'll generate some fantastically interesting data, which we intend to share with you.

At present we are performing the following tests:

1. Single & Multi-threaded HTTP download speed test
2. Single & Multi-threaded HTTP based upload speed test
3. Consumption of the connection – the amount of data sent and received
4. Availability of the connection – when it is unavailable
5. Jitter
6. Latency
7. Packet loss
8. DNS query resolution time
9. DNS query failure rate
10. Web page loading time
11. Web page loading failure rate

The above tests are performed against common US-based Internet destinations with the exception of the speed tests which are performed against a cluster of test servers

We are always developing new tests and can remotely upgrade the existing units with new testing profiles once they are ready for production use. Pretty comprehensive I think you'll agree!

We are looking for customers of all ISP's to participate. Note that we will only publish statistics for an ISP when we have a reasonable sample size or can be certain that our results are not merely an anomaly.

It's completely different! The only similarity is that our testing suite incorporates speed tests, amongst many other things.

Speed testers were written with the aim of helping individual users diagnose speed problems with their connections. Whilst results taken en-mass from them are useful for drawing very general conclusions, their usefulness does reduce when you consider:

1. They consider speed alone, and only for your specific machine. They tell you nothing about how a VoIP call would work, or how good your web browsing experience would be.
2. Environmental factors (e.g. using a wireless connection, having other Internet users on the network, etc) all impact results.
3. They're run on an ad-hoc basis. If you want to compare results at different times of the day then you need to run it yourself every single time.

That's not to take anything away from speed testing websites; they're a very useful tool for diagnosing an individual connection's maximum upload/download speed. But can we draw meaningful and accurate statistics when looking at more than just speed? Not to the extent we’re aiming to achieve with our project.

Our units download no more than 2GB per month and upload no more than 2GB. The amount that's downloaded is speed dependant (so a slower connection will use less traffic than a faster connection).

If you're on a product with a low cap then we'd advise against signing up, or at least informing us beforehand so that we can apply a different testing profile (we can run smaller speed tests on a per-device if necessary).

No. Our tests are designed to be non-intrusive. The vast majority of the tests that take place throughout the day are very minor and would have no effect on normal Internet activity.

Speed tests are obviously more intensive, but before running these our units will check how busy your wired and wireless networks are. If they are transferring more than 200Kb/s then the tests will be deferred for 1 minute and then the process is attempted again and repeated for up to 5 minutes.

The unit operates as a normal router and exposes absolutely no services to the Internet. It's similar to installing a print server or a NAS on to your home network - it's a cut down device that serves a very specific purpose.

We should point out that assuming the unit is installed as per the instructions, all network traffic will be flowing through it. However, the unit simply acts as a standard switch or standard router and does not look at any of the packets flowing across your network. It only monitors traffic volumes for the purposes of deciding when to run (or not to run!) the tests and to measure consumption.

Testing information uploaded from the unit to our servers contains no information about you whatsoever. Furthermore, all such communications are encrypted, ensuring that results cannot be tampered with en-route.

Your individual unit's test results will be available to you alone. Your unit's results will also be aggregated with others from the same ISP to form a larger average set of results that can be viewed publicly.

We have absolutely no intention of doing anything that may adversely affect your privacy or security. If you have any concerns please feel free to contact us to discuss them.

SamKnows, on behalf of the Ofcom, is collecting and storing broadband performance information, including various personally identifiable information (PII) such as the street addresses, email addresses, online usage patterns, and broadband performance information, from those individuals who are participating voluntarily in this test. SamKnows will not release, disclose to the public, or share any PII with any outside entities, including the Ofcom, except as is consistent with the Privacy Act of 1974, Public Law 93579 (5 U.S.C. 552a(b)(5)). For more information, see the SamKnows privacy policy. The broadband performance information that is made available to the public, including the Ofcom, will be in an aggregated form and with all PII removed, in compliance with subsection (b)(5) of the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended (5 U.S.C. 552a), and the SamKnows privacy policy. The broadband performance information that is made available to the public, including the Ofcom, will be in an aggregated form and with all PII removed, in compliance with subsection (b)(5) of the SamKnows privacy policy. The Ofcom is soliciting this information under authority of the Broadband Data Improvement Act of 2008, Pub. L. No. 110-385, Stat 4096 § 103(c)(1); American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 (ARRA), Pub. L. No. 111-5, 123 Stat 115 (2009); and Section 154(i) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended.

You know it! Once signed up and operational you will be sent an email with a link to your statistics page. If you don't receive the email, please contact us and we'll sort this out for you.

Below are some samples screenshots of some of the statistics that you will be able to access for your individual connection.