Internet Traffic Exchange: Time to Look under the Hood

It has become clear from consumer complaints to the Federal Communications Commission -- and even in some comments consumers have filed for the Open Internet Notice of Public Rulemaking -- that consumers are frustrated by recent trouble with their Internet experience for certain services and content providers.

The recent disputes between Netflix, Cogent and Internet service providers (ISPs) such as Comcast and Verizon are an example of this issue. We need to get to the bottom of this.

The release of the Measuring Broadband America report provides even more evidence that there are problems here worth examining. This annual report measures broadband speeds in a sampling of subscribers to 14 ISPs across the country serving over 80 percent of broadband consumers.

The data in this report confirms that we need more information, and we’re taking a number of additional steps, including:

• Releasing the full raw data set to the public so others can analyze our findings.
• Taking steps to better understand the issues; including taking a deeper look into causes of congestion and by analyzing network impact on video service providers such as YouTube, Hulu, and Netflix and others.
• Working to develop tools that measure and validate how these types of congestion issues affect the consumer experience. We expect to have instituted additional testing methodologies providing more information on network congestion and peering by winter 2014.

[Knapp is Chief and Johnston is Chief of the Electromagnetic Compatibility Division at FCC’s Office of Engineering & Technology]