The Regulatory Mix, TMI’s daily blog of regulatory activities, is a snapshot of PUC, FCC, legislative, and occasionally court, issues that our regulatory monitoring team uncovers each day. Depending on their significance, some items may be the subject of a TMI Regulatory Bulletin.
TELECOM
FCC
March Open Meeting
The FCC announced that it has rescheduled the date for its next Open Meeting from Wednesday, March 19, 2014, to Monday, March 31, 2014.
Speed Test App for IPhone
The FCC launched the FCC Speed Test app for iOS devices in the iTunes App Store. In November, the Commission unveiled its first public version of the FCC Speed Test app for Android smartphones in the Google Play store.
The iOS release is the latest step in the FCC’s efforts to crowdsource mobile broadband performance data for the mobile Measuring Broadband America program. Unlike the Android app, the iOS app cannot run periodically in the background. However, volunteers can test their cellular and Wi-Fi network performance manually to receive an on-demand view of upload and download speed, latency, and packet loss. No personal or uniquely identifiable information is collected. The data collected by the app is useful in informing users regarding their own performance and also supports the FCC’s open broadband data program, contributing to the information made freely available to the public on the nation’s mobile broadband performance in reports, maps, datasets, and other forms.
The Measuring Broadband America program, which has released three reports on fixed broadband networks, is a private-public partnership designed to bring greater clarity and competition to the broadband service marketplace.
