Friday, October 14, 2016

Two CalSPEED Locations in Destroyed City of Homs, Syria


As I've said in earlier posts, back when we launched CalSPEED in 2013, we didn't restrict distribution to only the United States. We added the restriction because we didn't want people running tests all over the world. CalSPEED is designed to be used by California residents so they can understand how their mobile provider is performing. Nevertheless, we occasionally still see tests appearing in unexpected parts of the world.

At the end of 2014, there were three tests performed at geographic coordinates that appear to be in the City of Homs, Syria. A quick look at those locations in Google Earth reveals the destruction of that city from years of war. See before-and-after photos in The Guardian here.

A New York Times' article on the destruction of another Syrian city, Aleppo, estimates the number of displaced people around the world is equivalent in number to the entire population of the United Kingdom or France. It would seem that number includes all displaced people, not just Syrians, but these images of Syria, even from Google Earth, are devastating.

Here's what part of Homs looks like from Google Earth:


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