BitTorrent was recently invited by the FCC to participate in a series of public workshops on broadband measurement. The most recent workshop was held last Wednesday and brought the group up to speed on the status of the various vendors of technology and equipment to be used.

This effort is similar to efforts in the UK sponsored by their regulator, Ofcom, to determine speeds being delivered to residential broadband customers. The project in the UK, recently published some results that were an interesting snapshot of real network capabilities relative to some of the marketing claims of ISPs. The FCC is taking a similar approach here in the US with additional input from academia, industry and ISPs to produce an enhanced set of measurement data. We at BitTorrent are pleased to be a part of this effort, as we’ve long supported additional transparency measures as an important aspect of any regulatory framework.

We look forward to what should be an interesting set of data as the project unfolds. Stay tuned.

– Eric –