Press Releases

Netograf.ro – the New Internet Speed Testing Application in Romania

08.10.2014

 
 
The Romanian Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM) has introduced to the public at the Internet & Mobile World 2014 Netograf.ro, an application for testing and monitoring the quality of the Internet access service available to the Romanian users. The users will be able to measure the data transfer rate, delay, jitter and packet loss ratio compared to those in the operator’s commercial offer. The application was launched for public testing, as the providers’ Internet offers are being uploaded, at this stage.
“ANCOM developed Netograf.ro in order to offer the Romanian internet users an independent, objective and free-of-charge tool by which they could permanently check the quality of the Internet service they have bought. Thus, they will be able not only to verify whether their internet service is up to the promised quality, but also to compare the registered parameters with the parameters obtained by the subscribers of other providers”, declared Cătălin Marinescu, president of ANCOM.
Netograf.ro is aimed at testing the quality of the connection between the end-user’s terminal equipment and a test server situated in an internet interexchange hub. For testing these parameters, a user must select the provider, the offer type they benefit from and the connection type. The authorised providers of internet access services have the obligation to introduce the technical details of their active commercial offers in the application, by means of a web interface.
This application stands out from other similar instruments due to the fact that, based on the tests performed by the users and on the offers introduced, it will also calculate the average values of the technical quality parameters offered by a certain provider. For example, as regards the Internet service speed, the application will calculate the average national value registered by each provider or the average value per locality. Having such additional information, the users will be able to evaluate the network performance as well, as experienced by other users. Taking into account the fact that the statistical values will result from the tests performed by the end-users, these statistics will become relevant once there is a sufficient number of tests in the application database. In order to avoid statistical errors, if a user choses a different provider from the pre-selected one, the result of the measurement will not be included in the statistics.
The application, whose database currently includes the offers of some of the main operators in the market, will be permanently updated, each authorised operator having the obligation to introduce their data regarding the quality parameters of the connections they sell, in accordance with the provisions of ANCOM’s Decision no.1201/2011. The provisions of this decision shall apply to internet access services provided by means of public fixed or mobile electronic communications networks, irrespective of the access technology used.
The test result may be influenced by a series of factors, so that, in order to obtain results as accurate as possible, before starting the test, the users must make sure that their Internet connection is not simultaneously used, that their terminal equipment is sufficiently endowed to enable reaching the speed promised in the commercial offer, that they are in the proximity of the router in case they use a wireless equipment or that no other applications that can alter the test result interfere. For electronic communications services provided at mobile locations, the users must make sure that they use the latest technology available at the moment of performing the test, they must be aware of whether their service has a certain traffic volume included, after the consumption of which the transfer speed drops to a specified level or to make sure that they have enough traffic included so that the test performance should not generate unwanted additional costs.
The application for testing the quality parameters of the Internet access service is one of the steps taken by ANCOM in order to facilitate the access of the Internet users to comparable, adequate and updated information, in addition to the imposition of the providers’ obligation to include in the contracts the parameters measured by means of Netograf.ro and to publish a series of other administrative parameters on their websites.
Using Netograf.ro, ANCOM may have a pro-active approach as regards the identification of the possible degradations of the Internet access service. By comparing the offers of the Internet access services, as well as the evolution in time of the service quality parameters, ANCOM can elaborate studies and reports regarding the quality of the Internet access service and can assess the necessity of regulatory interventions in the market.
The application launched today will be permanently improved based on the feed-back received from the users.
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