Open Internet Groups Launch the 'Internet Health Test'

WASHINGTON — On Tuesday, BattlefortheNet.com launched the "Internet Health Test" to collect data on Internet speeds across the Web. The test is an interactive tool that lets users run speed measurements across multiple interconnection points and collect data on whether and where Internet service providers are degrading online speeds and violating Net Neutrality.

Demand Progress, Fight for the Future and the Free Press Action Fund launched BattlefortheNet.com in 2014 and will ask more than a million members across the United States to run the Internet Health Test on their devices.

In February the Federal Communications Commission voted to implement strong Net Neutrality protections, banning ISPs from blocking or throttling Internet users' ability to connect to any website or service of their choosing. By letting users run continuous tests for the next three to six months, the Internet Health Test will amass data to determine whether ISPs are breaking the rules.

Anyone can take the test at: battleforthenet.com/internethealthtest/

Researchers at Measurement Lab, an industry and research coalition, will evaluate the data. With the information the test yields, open Internet advocates will be able to identify potential violations and provide a strong benchmark for FCC enforcement of the open Internet rules.

"ISPs have long degraded speeds that Internet users paid for," said Free Press Action Fund Internet Campaign Director Candace Clement. “Now that we have real Net Neutrality rules on the books we can hold companies like Comcast to account whenever they interfere with our speeds and mess with our content."

“After repeatedly watching Internet service providers slow down people’s Internet connections we're not going to just sit back and trust Comcast, Verizon and AT&T to follow the new open Internet rules,” said Fight for the Future Campaign Manager Charlie Furman. “The Internet Health Test is our way of sending a message to ISPs everywhere that we're watching and we won't let anyone throttle the Internet.”