How good is your internet? Is it better where you are than where your friends live? Is your provider the best? The Commerce Commission has the same questions.
It’s got British company Sam Knows to measure internet speeds available here.
To get the data, Sam Knows needs to put devices – called probes – into thousands of homes. A probe connects to your modem and at different times of the day does a speed test. The test involves sending and retrieving packets of data over the network.
Probes don’t monitor your traffic or collect information on where you’re browsing.
Data from these probes will be aggregated into a nationwide picture of internet speeds. This will be broken down by provider and region, and published by the commission.
This information is vital for consumers as it gives us a better picture of broadband performance. We’ll be working with the commission to share results, so watch this space.
Call for volunteers
Sam Knows needs more than 3000 homes to sign up. Even if you’ve got ADSL broadband in a rural area, it wants to hear from you. Volunteers will be able to see info on their own data speeds and compare them with national figures. To sign up, visit measuringbroadbandnewzealand.com.