FCC’s Mobile Broadband Testing Android App Has a Release Date
The FCC’s mobile broadband measurement app will be released Oct. 30, officials said Friday. The initial release will be on the Android platform, and with a less-capable iPhone version to be released later. The iPhone version won’t have nearly the same functionality, officials said, due to system-level restrictions in its operating system. “We can’t do scheduled testing,” which is “very important to us,” said Walter Johnston, chief of the Electromagnetic Compatibility Division of the FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology.
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The FCC and measuring firm SamKnows are also working on access to the back-end system so other apps can integrate test results into their own existing apps. Currently the app interface is “very geeky” and gives a lot of detail on the information collected. There is a group that will want that level of detail, said SamKnows CEO Alex Salter, but a larger group will likely want less detail -- just basic speed test results, and perhaps the closest cell tower. “We're going to look at releasing not just one app, but a whole series of apps” and integrating itself with as many apps as it can within the next 12 months, he said.
A website, MeasuringBroadbandAmerica.com, will also go live Oct. 30, Salter said. The site, which is already built, will contain information about the project’s history, an instruction guide and technical support contacts. With help from the FCC’s mapping team, the site will have interactive reports that show mobile broadband performance across states, or in particular parts of the U.S., he said.
The “real value” will come in how they make sense of the data, Salter said. It will be a “very complicated” project, in terms of how to remove outliers, how to present data, and how to know that there’s enough data to make accurate statements about mobile broadband performance, he said.
The number of app downloads necessary to get a good sample size is a hard question to answer, FCC officials said. Based on the success of the FCC’s original wireline measurement effort without much outreach, and based on SamKnows’ experience in other countries, it’s “probably going to be no challenge” to get 200,000 downloads, Johnston said. Beyond that, the FCC will be reaching out to “public media” and “doing some blogs,” he said. “This is very much boot-strapping.” Added OET senior attorney-adviser James Miller: “You can help us out by liking our page, and following our Twitters, and all the other stuff that’s exciting and my daughter in high school teaches me about.”