EC to test broadband performance across member states

D'Peoples Voice

Wouldn't say the Irish Government will want Irish people taking part and showing up our deficiencies!!:D

EC to test broadband performance across member states
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15079186

The study aims to get a picture of broadband quality across Europe

The European Commission is launching a major new study of broadband performance across Europe.

The project, led by measurement firm SamKnows, aims to give a clear picture of speeds and reliability of net services in all member states.

ISPs, regulators and consumers will have access to the results when they are completed.

The European Commission is seeking 10,000 volunteers for the project.

Volunteers will be sent a small device - known as the whitebox - which will plug into their home internet connection.

When the broadband line is not in use, the whitebox will run a series of automated tests to measure the speed and performance of the connection.

SamKnows conducted a similar project with Ofcom in the UK and found that broadband performance was less than 50% of advertised speeds. Alex Salter, chief executive of SamKnows, said the test would be a large-scale version of the UK project. (see - http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=67134503)

"We are working towards a standard for measuring internet performance and a public dataset that everyone can access," he said.

"This is vital for everything from major government investment initiatives through to helping consumers choose which broadband provider and package," he added.

roast

Gonna sign up for this now.
Also going to twist the arms of a few of my friends in the countryside to sign up. Their atrocious 512kb to 2mb connection speeds should make the results interesting.

bealtine

roast wrote: »

Gonna sign up for this now.

Only NBS victims should apply:)

roast

bealtine wrote: »

Only NBS victims should apply:)

If only they could. Fixed line BB only. :rolleyes:

Mollywolly

Can anyone find a link to this study? I've been looking on the EC website and can't see a thing. I'd love to take part in this because our broadband has been terrible for the last few months and our ISP doesn't seem to care, so it would be great to get some payback

RobertFoster

http://www.samknows.eu/

roast

Signed up the other day, feel kinda guilty that my connection might skew the results a tad. :pac:

On another note, turns out you get to keep the TP-Link TL-WR1043ND router once the testing is all over and done with. Same router as my own. Will eventually flash it with DD-WRT. Lovely jubbly.

yuloni

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Mollywolly

Oops! I didn't see that Robert had posted a link to the study until today so have just signed up. Now I have to wait and see if I qualify to get the white box

bealtine

Condi wrote: »

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I got a response and a link to fill out my address which I did...

yuloni

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roast

Condi wrote: »

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Yeah, they've contacted me for a speedtest result and additional location details. Last stage of the selection process afaik.

Condi wrote: »

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SamKnows will only (knowingly) send these to fixed-line broadband users. Not mobile or satellite midband connections.

yuloni

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roast

Kinda surprised there hasn't been more discussion/promotion on this. I haven't seen it discussed anywhere other than boards.ie, which is a shame. We really need to highlight the poor connectivity in this country. I've suggested to countless friends/family members to sign up for this - most of which have received the second email at this point.

I'm also pretty disappointed that only fixed-line broadband users can sign-up for this. One of the biggest problems here is the RBS/NBS - it's not even broadband... If the EC were willing to accept applications from NBS/RBS users, the results would be entirely different.

roast

Just to update this, I've received a confirmation email from SamKnows "welcoming" me to the community. I'll be receiving the Whitebox within the next 2 weeks.

Mollywolly

roast wrote: »

Just to update this, I've received a confirmation email from SamKnows "welcoming" me to the community. I'll be receiving the Whitebox within the next 2 weeks.

Me too!

D'Peoples Voice

yeah, just got the email this evening.
I'll be setting up the test at my parents place as they use Digiweb
(I've only got 3 mobile at my apartment at the minute:mad:)

Hector Salamanca

Just a heads up for those with a low cap....from their website

NOTE: Our Whiteboxes download approximately 3GB per month and upload around 1GB. If you’re on a product with a low usage cap then we’d advise against signing up, or at least informing us beforehand so that we can apply a different testing profile.

RobertFoster

roast wrote: »

Signed up the other day, feel kinda guilty that my connection might skew the results a tad. :pac:

On another note, turns out you get to keep the TP-Link TL-WR1043ND router once the testing is all over and done with. Same router as my own. Will eventually flash it with DD-WRT. Lovely jubbly.

Mine arrived today (not set it up yet), but it's a TL-WR741ND instead. It's got a WAN port and 4 LAN ports, but no phone line port. What could it be used for after the trial?

yomamasflavour

Me too (also got the TL-WR741ND) bit disappointed, thought the router would at least have gigabit capable ports.

roast

RobertFoster wrote: »

Mine arrived today (not set it up yet), but it's a TL-WR741ND instead. It's got a WAN port and 4 LAN ports, but no phone line port. What could it be used for after the trial?

You could flash the firmware back to standard TP-Link firmware, or something more interesting like DD-WRT, and use it as a router.

yomamasflavour wrote: »

Me too (also got the TL-WR741ND) bit disappointed, thought the router would at least have gigabit capable ports.

I didn't think they would be sending out that model.
Lads, what connection do ye have? I have a feeling that they might be sending out different models depending on what net connection ye have.
If I get the same model you guys did, ill be sending it back for sure, there's no point having that bottlenecking my 100mb connection.

yomamasflavour

Where I am, Eircom 7Mb is all you can get.

Though it's not the 7Mb connection that's the issue.
I have a Gigabit home network and had hoped to swap out my current router temporarily and use the whitebox one, but obviously can't do that now.

roast

yomamasflavour wrote: »

Where I am, Eircom 7Mb is all you can get.

Though it's not the 7Mb connection that's the issue.
I have a Gigabit home network and had hoped to swap out my current router temporarily and use the whitebox one, but obviously can't do that now.

Well, the reason I ask is that I suspect samknows would send the 10/100 routers out for lower-speed connections as they may not expect the user to need gigabit.

I suppose I'll know for sure when I receive mine. Didn't get any post today.

evlgmaojr27ypu

Anybody able to log in to the TL-WR741ND? tried using the web browser and telnet no luck.

evlgmaojr27ypu

RobertFoster wrote: »

Mine arrived today (not set it up yet), but it's a TL-WR741ND instead. It's got a WAN port and 4 LAN ports, but no phone line port. What could it be used for after the trial?

It does have 802.11n !!!!!

Kensington

Got mine today, UPC 25Mb.
Have it all hooked up, not had a chance to mess around with it yet though...

starviewadams

Just signed up for this now as I'm only after seeing it here,dya reckon they are still taking applications?

RobertFoster

starviewadams wrote: »

Just signed up for this now as I'm only after seeing it here,dya reckon they are still taking applications?

In their FAQ they say they're looking for 10,000 applicants, so you might still be able to get in.

Their FAQ also says the project is set to run for 2 years... that doesn't mean we've got to keep this thing set up until 2013 does it? :eek:

Sponge Bob

emm yeah well Ireland has 1% of the EU population so that is 100 units.

roast

So I got my whitebox today. TP Link TL1043ND. Same as my current router. Looks like my assumption was correct, Samknows are sending out gigabit units for higher-speed internet connections.

I don't have it set up yet, as my network is a little bit of a nuisance (Thomson modem->router->PCs) so I have to set it up between the Thomson and my router. I'll do it later. :P

bealtine

roast wrote: »

So I got my whitebox today. TP Link TL1043ND.

I didn't get one:(