JoeTrippi.com

The FCC has long battled the nation’s telecom giants, desperately seeking to acquire accurate data of exactly what areas these telecos cover and at what speed. But now the FCC is going straight to the American consumer, asking everyone in America to test their broadband speed.

According to Wired:

Starting Thursday, netizens can go to the FCC’s Broadband.gov site, enter their address and test their broadband speed using one of two testing tools. iPhone and Android users can go to their respective app stores and download the FCC’s first ever mobile app, which will report to the feds exactly how slow your connection actually is. The FCC is requiring the street address “it may use this data to analyze broadband quality and availability on a geographic basis.”

Broadband connection testing isn’t new, and is freely available online, but this might mark the first time that individual tests help to lead to informed policy making.

Crowdsourcing this data is a brilliant move, given that telecoms have long fought against telling federal regulators what areas they cover and at what speed, arguing that information will be used by competitors to poach their customers. The data can also be used as a way to prevent telecoms from over-promising and under-delivering on upload and download speeds.

Ideally the testing would result in a clearer view of broadband service across this country, making our nation’s telecom giants accountable to their consumers.

Visit broadband.gov and test your broadband today.