The Federal Communications Commission made available a smartphone application that is meant to test wireless network speeds.
According to the FCC, the app runs periodically in the background when the phone is not in use and tests both cellular and Wi-Fi download speeds, upload speeds, latency, and packet loss. Users can see how their broadband service performs and track it over time. Testing is limited to 100MB per month, and it grabs data such as cell ID, signal strength, and GPS locations. The FCC says testing is entirely anonymous and none of the data generated can be tracked back to individuals. The data is fed back to the FCC so it can aggregate the results and generate a clearer picture of just how well the wireless networks are performing across the country.
The application is limited to Android phones for now and is free to download from the Google Play Store.
