The results of work performed by a student practicum team in the Master of Science in Analytics (MSA) Class of 2013 has made its way into the latest report on consumer broadband wireline services published by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Measuring Broadband in America 2014. The team—led by Neha Rawal and including Suman Basu, Robert Moreira and Attila Veres—developed a novel method for measuring broadband performance (Internet data upload and download speeds) called the “consistent speed metric,” which provides a more accurate way to assess the quality of service actually experienced by households across the country. The consistent speed metric has been a catalyst in elevating the dialogue on broadband performance at a critical time in the governance of the Internet—with the heavy demands placed on Internet Service Providers by the rapid proliferation of web video—and the ensuing debate on Net Neutrality.
Commenting on the release of the report, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said, “Consumers deserve to get what they pay for. While it’s encouraging to see that in the past these reports have encouraged providers to improve their services, I’m concerned that some providers are failing to deliver consistent speeds to consumers that are commensurate to their advertised speeds. As a result, I’ve directed FCC staff to write to the underperforming companies to ask why this happened and what they will do to solve this.”