Video: How fast is your broadband?

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Consumer columnist David Lazarus tested two services the Federal Communications Commission provides for Internet users to measure their broadband connection speeds. It didn’t quite work out as planned--he got dramatically different results.

The FCC is using the tests to find out where people are getting slower broadband access than they should. The agency is planning to require Internet service providers to clearly disclose average access speeds, rather than the current practice of promising speeds ‘up to’ a certain rate.

What many consumers now get ‘is often much less than the advertised peak speed,’ the FCC says.

Read about the free test David took in his latest column.