TORONTO – Rogers Communications said Wednesday it has signed an agreement with SamKnows Ltd., a well-trusted independent broadband performance testing company, to conduct ongoing measurement of broadband internet speed, based on customer data collected in the home.
SamKnows measures broadband performance around the globe, including measuring for the FCC in the United States, for example. The U.S.-based company also recently completed a small pilot project with the CRTC which used SamKnows to test rural broadband speeds.
"With Internet usage exploding, speed is more important than ever to the customer experience," said John Boynton, Rogers’ EVP and chief marketing officer, in the press release. "We are committing to long-term in-home testing as an additional quality measure to ensure customers are getting world-leading Internet experiences. We encourage other ISPs to do the same."
The company noted that it has invested more than $10 billion in network infrastructure and working with SamKnows, which has also performed testing for U.K. regulator Ofcom, Rogers will have the ability to measure actual customers' broadband speeds on a consistent basis. This testing is complementary to existing testing the company already conducts.
Using a custom hardware device called a Whitebox that simply plugs-in to a customer's existing internet connection, SamKnows will measure Internet upload and download performance as well as other key performance indicators such as latency.
"We are excited to have this opportunity to bring the proven SamKnows methodology for measuring broadband speeds to Canada," says Alex Salter, chairman of SamKnows, in the release. "We will be testing the actual Internet speeds Canadians experience in their homes. We are pleased that Rogers is the first Canadian ISP to commit to such a large home-based testing program."
Rogers says today's announcement is the latest in a series of initiatives it has made to help customers be confident that they are getting what they are paying for. Earlier this year, Rogers engaged LeMay-Yates to conduct research to help give a more accurate look at how Canada's actual broadband speeds stacked up on a global scale relative to advertised speeds.
That report found Canada ranked within the top 10 countries internationally for fastest Internet speeds delivered. In addition, Rogers announced it would phase out its Internet Traffic Management Policy, which was designed to manage peer-to-peer Internet uploaded traffic. This phase out is on track to be completed by the end of 2012. Most recently, Rogers announced that it is working towards SysTrust Certification of its Hi-Speed Internet Data Meter Systems with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC). This certification process includes evaluating the processes Rogers uses to measure customer Hi-Speed Internet data usage.
