Four Out of Five US Broadband Users Don't Know Kinds of Speeds They Get

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Four out of five broadband Internet subscribers don’t know how fast their connections are, even as households and businesses spend more for faster connections advertised by their providers, according to a survey released Tuesday by the Federal Communications Commission.
The survey comes after separate findings by the agency that the actual speeds experienced by consumers are as low as half of what providers advertised. Those results, from a ComScore survey early this year, were announced by the FCC's task force assigned to create its national broadband plan.

In response to the sets of findings, the FCC said Tuesday that it will launch an experiment with 10,000 volunteers to tests speeds they receive in their homes. The agency said it wants to install hardware onto the connections that go into those homes to test exactly what speeds residents get and compare that with what the users signed up for. The FCC also said it will seek comments on how the agency can begin testing for mobile broadband speeds.

The FCC’s survey of 3,005 consumers showed last week that one in six cellphone users said they found surprising extra charges on their monthly cellphone bills. One half of all cellphone and landline Internet users said they were confused or unaware of early termination fees due for canceling a contract early.

The survey, conducted by Abt/SRBI and Princeton Survey Research Associates, support growing concern at the FCC that consumers aren’t equipped with enough information about their cellphone and Internet contracts even as they spend hundreds of dollars each month on the services they have come to rely on for everyday communications.

Even without knowing what speeds they are getting to connect to the Web, nine in ten people said they are satisfied with the speeds they are getting. But only 24 percent said they believe they always get the speeds that are advertised to them.

“Better information can help all consumers choose the broadband services that best meet their needs,” said Joel Gurin, chief of the consumer and governmental affairs bureau of the FCC. “Today, most people just know that their home broadband speed is supposed to be ‘blazing fast.’ They need more meaningful information to know exactly what speed they need for the applications they want to run, and what provider and plan is their best choice.”

Gurin stopped short of saying whether the FCC planned to create regulations on transparency of price and speeds of broadband. But in its national broadband plan, the agency recommended a potential nutrition label that would allow consumers to compare what speeds and prices are offered by carriers.

Check out what the FCC is doing on the consumer front, with this interview with Sherrese Smith, legal adviser to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski.

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