Do Solar Power Projects Get Fast Broadband?

Here is a photo from mobile tester Dan Lucero at site 2173 in the Mojave Desert. What kind of speeds did he get at this location? It turns out this solar power installation is not a haven for mobile broadband. It must have been difficult for the workers, who constructed it and  maintain it, to check their e-mail, surf the web and stream video. Only two providers managed to get any speeds at all and both of them on only one of their devices. The Verizon netbook managed 1.9 Mbps up and 2.3 down. The Verizon phone got no service at all. The AT&T phone  tested .3 Mbps up and 1.7 Mbps down. The AT&T netbook had no service and neither did the other providers we are testing, Sprint and T-Mobile.

Video Streaming in Uninhabited Desert

When asked if he saw anything interesting in his mobile testing travels, California Mobile Broadband tester Steven Crews had this to say about point number 2157.

“ If by interesting you meant completely desolate and devoid of all life except for creosote bushes, man, have I got the shot for you. Site 2157, near Cadiz in the Mojave Desert.”

Believe it or not, Verizon delivers fast mobile broadband at this location. This very fast speed is suitable for streaming video or any other broadband activity. Their moble broadband speed is well above served speeds at 26 Mbps downstream. The other providers were either extremely low, AT&T, or no service at all, T-Mobile and Sprint.

Fourth Round of Mobile Testing Begins Today

The California Public Utilities Commission's Fourth Round of mobile testing begins today. Along with the same 1,200 points we have tested in the first three rounds, we are adding 790 additional test points in urban areas and in problem areas where local citizens are challenging mobile broadband speeds on the California Interactive Broadband Map. In the last round, Verizon made huge strides in rural and tribal areas bringing broadband service of six Mbps down and 1.5 Mbps up to many areas of the state that were previously unserved. Will Verizon continue to make strides and continue to dominate mobile broadband service? Will the other providers, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile make improvements to their network? Stay Tuned as Chapter Four of the California Mobile Broadband Speed Test unfolds.

New Version of CalSPEED will include Mobile Viewer

The next version of CalSPEED, our mobile app that tests mobile broadband speeds, will include an address look-up mapping function. Along with testing mobile speeds and keeping a record of your results, the latest version of CalSPEED, Version 1.2, will include a mobile viewer, with which you can click on a California map and look up available broadband provider speeds, both fixed and mobile or enter you address and get a listing of fixed and mobile broadband speeds. Each time you use CalSPEED to conduct a speed test, the data from your test goes to feed our state Interactive Broadband Map's CalSPEED layer. As of the end of September, intrepid citizens have conducted over 2,000 tests on this app and we would like to increase that number. This new version will be available on Google Play for android phones in the next couple weeks. A mobile viewer for iPhone, without CalSPEED, should be available from Apple next month.

Fourth Round of Mobile Testing to Begin Next Month

This latest round of mobile testing will include more testing points and all of it will be conducted with the latest LTE equipment. Our plan is to start testing by the third week of October to beat the snows at higher elevations. With more testing and better equipment, the fourth round of mobile testing promises to be the most accurate round yet. How will the four providers, AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint match up? Will Verizon continue to rapidly expand their mobile broadband network? Stay tuned and find out.

Our intrepid testers gauge the far reaches of mobile broadband.

Version 2.1 of the California Broadband Map is now being released

This is an update regarding California broadband mapping. Our new version of the Interactive Broadband Map, 2.1, is now being released at this web address: http://www.broadbandmap.ca.gov/v2.1/

Here are some of the highlighted improvements:

We have a new Public Feedback Layer which will be fed by the survey results of map users reporting service or no service.

The CalSpeed Average Downstream layer, which will be generated by citizens using our free app measuring mobile broadband speeds, which is available for android phones. Data from the app will be crowdsourced to the Broadband Map through the use of this layer.

Tired of looking at the numbers from rounds 1 and 2? Results from the third round of mobile testing will be added to the map. Those results show Verizon making some big gains.

There are no more "Getting Started" splash screens, which will mean less extraneous screens for users to click through and also no default downstream availability layers that users will have to click off when the begin playing with the map. All users will begin with a blank map and they will figure out what layers they want to show. Here is the map in action showing fixed broadband providers near Colusa, Ca.

Third Round Results Show Verizon making Huge Strides

We are putting the finishing touches on our mobile white paper, "Measuring Mobile Broadband in California," and are finding that Verizon is making huge strides in covering the state in mobile broadband. As of April, when we last conducted broadband tests, we found Verizon making huge improvements, particularly in rural and tribal areas. Our statistical analysis suggests that Verizon may have covered 90 percent of the state's population in mobile broadband at served speeds of least 6 Mb/s downstream and 1.5 Mb/s upstream. What will happen when our testers return to California backroads this October for a fourth round of tests? We are looking forward to seeing the results.