Important to us all - Improving Digital Britain

Hello Everyone,

I�m working for a company (Actual Experience) that is doing something I think is important and interesting to all of us. Ofcom has asked us to analyse how well Digital Britain is performing and we�re working with them, ISPs and people at home to improve people�s experience of broadband.

We give our subscribers free access to the analysis we provide to Ofcom, live in their browsers. You�ll get a dashboard that shows you how well your connection can support popular applications and you can compare your broadband to our national standard.

It�s a simple, free download that will only take 2 minutes of your time. It has a very small overhead and will never look at anything you actually do with your connection or computer (see below for more details).

Join us to understand what your broadband can do, and help Ofcom and providers improve the service to consumers everywhere.

It all starts here:

http://www.actual-experience.com/bbfix


And you can see some examples of what you�ll get on our Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/bbfix



Thank you in advance.
Kes

Consultant, Actual Experience Ltd.



Further context for those who would like it

This is some context and assurance around the main piece of this post for those that wish to investigate deeper � I want to assure the community that we are who we say we are, that our intentions are genuine and clear.

We will never release individual users� data to anyone but that specific user. Under no circumstances whatsoever is any personally identifiable information ever shared with any 3rd party (including Ofcom). Further, we never look at, capture, transmit, store or in any way see any of your content or anything you use your connection or computer for.

The software itself runs as a service, and averages 236 Kilobytes per hour when the user�s host PC or Mac (or indeed Raspberry Pi) is active. Typical usage is therefore approximately 166MB per month, with a maximum of 200MB per month; and that assumes the machine is on 24/7.

Ofcom has awarded us this contract to investigate their view that speed is not necessarily a defining factor in the quality of a user�s experience - there are many other factors that can affect that human experience in the home, ISP and wider Internet. We have a proven methodology, based upon 10 years of Academic research, that is able to determine what a user�s experience would be of a particular application if they were to use it. For more technical users, the underlying science behind this is based upon the only mature and accepted standard for quantifying human experience - Mean Opinion Score (MOS) for Voice. Our core research and Intellectual Property is an extension of the algorithms behind MOS to enable us to make that quantification for any application.

This is the second project that we have tendered for with Ofcom, and we have successfully won both within a competitive process.

For anyone who wishes to confirm our involvement with Ofcom, they have briefed their Customer Contact Team (CCT) on our relationship, who will happily answer any questions. They can be contacted on 0300 123 3333 (also published on the site - http://www.ofcom.org.uk/contact-us)

You are of course more than welcome to ask any questions of Actual Experience, either through this forum or via email: [email protected]

Further information on Actual Experience can be found on our website (http://www.actual-experience.com) and our Facebook page out the BBFix project (http://www.facebook.com/bbfix)

One of our co-founders (Professor Jonathan Pitts) is located at the Queen Mary University of London. Further relevant information can therefore be found here:

http://www.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/people/view/3154/prof-jon...

http://www.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/research/impact/actual-ex...

While you have answered many of the questions I put forward you have not absorbed some the rules and etiquette of an online forum.

YOU DO NOT CROSS POST, particularly when its copy/paste replies. When it is an end-user seeking information and perhaps has not had a reply in a couple of hours, but when it is a commercial operation the response really is WHY? If maximum exposure is needed then perhaps paid advertising with appropriate keywords to target people is the way to go.

This may sound like harsh words, but without a firm cross posting policing the site would be swamped very quickly.

A big question remains - what exactly is tested, i.e. is it latency, DNS look up times? Most of the presentation focuses on the presentation of the results rather than what the source measurements are based on.

Please accept my apologies for breach of etiquette. As you allude to, and as you would have seen from our private conversation prior to this post, I would not want to annoy and alienate a community intentionally.

It was an innocent choice to post in four forums, as the service applies in all four areas and not in a silo. I do, however, appreciate how if that happened all of the time, the forum would be swamped.

As for the big question - the source measurements are very simple, based around ICMP measurements and simple HTTP/S GETs where appropriate. How those benign and simple measurements are processed and viewed, and output via a number of algorithms into a behaviour related to individual applications, is done centrally at our Analytics Engine.

Why not just use the Think Broadband Quality Monitor?

It's saves having another process installed on your computer, and your computer doesn't even have to be switched on...

Wonder what other testing systems went up against Actual Experience in the tender process.

Just getting ready for the ISPA 2014 technical testing which pretty much looks to do the same sorts of testing and with a wee bit of funding could be extended considerably.

In reply to a post by Ripley:

Why not just use the Think Broadband Quality Monitor?

It's saves having another process installed on your computer, and your computer doesn't even have to be switched on...

Hi Ripley

Ours is slightly different, in that it captures the entire digital supply chain to several different targets out on the internet - beyond your local broadband supplier network - and also incorporates your LAN depending on where the host machine is.

It is also completely flexible around pathing or IP changes, taking this into account and accommodating them within the calculations.

As you can see from my original post, the service is designed to be very unobtrusive, and not send out huge amounts of data nor tax the host machine.

We get similar queries around existing instrumentation within large Enterprise environments - we are very keen to impress upon the fact that we do not and will not position our service as a replacement for existing toolsets, but as a complementary one. It can be used to corroborate other data, and potentially steer other tools to other potential areas that they should concentrate on.

I hope that this answers your question.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Wonder what other testing systems went up against Actual Experience in the tender process.

Just getting ready for the ISPA 2014 technical testing which pretty much looks to do the same sorts of testing and with a wee bit of funding could be extended considerably.

Very interesting - It would be intriguing to compare the methodology and techniques!

In reply to a post by Kezkay:

Hello Everyone,

I�m working for a company (Actual Experience) that is doing something I think is important and interesting to all of us. Ofcom has asked us to analyse how well Digital Britain is performing and we�re working with them, ISPs and people at home to improve people�s experience of broadband.

We give our subscribers free access to the analysis we provide to Ofcom, live in their browsers. You�ll get a dashboard that shows you how well your connection can support popular applications and you can compare your broadband to our national standard.

It�s a simple, free download that will only take 2 minutes of your time. It has a very small overhead and will never look at anything you actually do with your connection or computer (see below for more details).

Join us to understand what your broadband can do, and help Ofcom and providers improve the service to consumers everywhere.

___

It appears to me that the above post, in total , was an Advert, ,part of which I've deleted from my reply .

So it broke tbb rules ::>>quote

We do not allow users to post advertisements or commercial solicitations on our forums. This includes touting one's own equipment for sale. Advertisers wishing to take advantage of our site are welcome to contact us for banner ads. However, we do not have a problem with users posting links to their web sites in signatures, or posts provided their posts are materially useful and are not simply seeking to promote their products (e.g. recommending themselves for every query). Generally we are less tolerant of posters who do have commercial signatures when it comes to what is and is not abuse. We are less strict on ISPs posting in their own forums. Note that the restriction on advertising includes linking to schemes where you receive a commission or benefit of some kind from a user signing up.#



Actual Experience on their own site quote a charge ::>>

##Analytic fees are £20 per Analytic with a minimum of 50 Analytics per end customer.##

Hi,
I note you have a Linux client but it can not be downloaded with out first signing up.
Can you please tell me a little more about the client application.
e.g. is it script based, python / Perl etc, or maybe a C app and is the source open?

I wondered when somebody would mention fees. I'm a simple old non-techie soul and was rather puzzled by the first four posts in this thread. But when I see the words contract and consultant I keep my hand firmly around my wallet.

Hi KelvinBridge,

Our services are applied in the business world in many large Enterprises; and yes in those cases analytics fees applied.

However, for this project (BBFix) we have been tasked by Ofcom to review consumer Digital Britain. The BBFix Project is absolutely free to use from a consumer point of view, due to our agreement with Ofcom.

I hope that is truly clear - there are no charges at all from the consumer perspective.

Thanks
Kes

In reply to a post by Malwaremike:

I wondered when somebody would mention fees. I'm a simple old non-techie soul and was rather puzzled by the first four posts in this thread. But when I see the words contract and consultant I keep my hand firmly around my wallet.

Hi Malwaremike,

As per another response I've just made, this specific project (BBFix) is working with Ofcom.

There is absolutely no charge at all to the consumer for taking part, due to this agreement with Ofcom.

Our services are of course applied in the Enterprise world outside of this project, and yes, of course, charges apply in those situations.

I hope I'm being 100% clear - it's imperative that people who are willing to join in with the BBFix project know that there is no cost to them.

Thanks
Kes

So you want people to install some software to analyse my broadband.

How do we know your not secretly logging stuff we look at? Or gathering data to pass on to 3rd parties?

He is Kent Ertugrul and I claim my £10!

Hi bernies

The measurements are all completely benign - ICMP and HTTP/S GETs. How those standard measurements are analysed via our algorithms happens within our Analytics Engine. There is therefore nothing sensitive being collected by our service.

I can absolutely relate to the view you've posed, which is why in the original post, I have made assurances around the type of data collected, who sees that data, and our sensitivity around data security. Those written assurances, plus the fact we won this project with Ofcom through official paths (verifiable with Ofcom), and the links providing some additional context and background on our company, I would hope that you will see that we are an organisation of integrity and keen to show we are who we say we are, and do what we say we do.

I hope this goes some way to assuring you.

Thanks
Kes

In reply to a post by RichTea23:

Hi,
I note you have a Linux client but it can not be downloaded with out first signing up.
Can you please tell me a little more about the client application.
e.g. is it script based, python / Perl etc, or maybe a C app and is the source open?

Hi RichTea23,

We can give you visibility of the Agent here - please feel free to download and have a look:

http://actual-experience.com/sw/5ea1cdd4026475283d25...

You won't be able to actually use it until signing up with the BBFix project though, so you are aware!

Thanks
Kes

In reply to a post by jelv:

He is Kent Ertugrul and I claim my £10!

I share the same first initial - but that's where my resemblance ends!

Kes

When you say ICMP, do you mean you are pinging the client router (in the way the thinkbroadband quality monitor does)? If so, you have a problem, as the BT Retail Home Hubs, covering a rather large proportion of the SOHO broadband market, don't respond to those.

In reply to a post by jelv:

He is Kent Ertugrul and I claim my £10!

......Did you have to show your packet of Instant Phorm ??

In reply to a post by Kezkay:

Hi KelvinBridge,

Our services are applied in the business world in many large Enterprises; and yes in those cases analytics fees applied.

However, for this project (BBFix) we have been tasked by Ofcom to review consumer Digital Britain. The BBFix Project is absolutely free to use from a consumer point of view, due to our agreement with Ofcom.

I hope that is truly clear - there are no charges at all from the consumer perspective.


Thanks
Kes

Ofcom>>Nearly 30% of advertising spend in the UK is on internet advertising
A major trend in advertising markets in recent years has been the growth of spend on the internet (Figure 5.8). In 2005, internet spend accounted for less than 10% of total advertising spend in all our comparator countries, but by 2010 online spend accounted for more than 15% in most countries, and approached 30% in the UK.##


No doubt this includes you salary !!

I'm game. I have registered and installed the app. I already test my line download and upload once an hour with a multi-threaded downloader, J Dast Auto Speedtester, will that effect the results for my line in the dashboard?

I have long been a vocal advocate of the importance of varied metrics, routes and targets - although a download test and a latency monitor can tell you a lot, they can also give false reassurance (when testing a new line/provider for example). You can have a perfect TBB speed test and flawless BQM, but still not be able to stream iPlayer properly on an evening, for example.

However, Actual Experience are being paid a lot of money by OFCOM. You are not passing a penny on to the participants and you are not even paying for advertising to recruit volunteers (despite you presumably being contracted to achieve the necessary numbers as I see no advertising from OFCOM for this scheme).

As far as I am aware, most internet users and TBB forum members are humans (although I do know exceptions). They already have a perfect tailor-made assessment as to how their connection performs for the most important human - themselves. Your algorithms offer no benefit to their understanding of their connection. Your case study on your website is most amusing - "Craig" knew full-well his new ISP was pants and not meeting his needs - he didn't need to pay you to monitor it and present this in a dashboard and graph.

My first question is - are you going to present the scores by different ISPs to participants in their dashboard, which is at least one thing I can think of that would be of benefit or interest? (Wherever OFCOM are going with this, advertising a quality score along with speed - it's never gonna happen in reality, this is pie in the sky stuff - so what can we see right now please that would be of practical use and benefit to participants rather than just lining your pockets...)

My second question is - do you guarantee that our data will never be passed on or sold to anyone other than OFCOM?

The question for me is how do you differentiate between a slow broadband connection at the router, problems with internal distribution (over wire or ariwaves) or a computer problem?

In reply to a post by vimto_girl:

My second question is - do you guarantee that our data will never be passed on or sold to anyone other than OFCOM?

My question is Kes, do you guarantee that our data will never be passed on or sold to anyone BY OFCOM?

In reply to a post by vimto_girl:

Actual Experience are being paid a lot of money by OFCOM. You are not passing a penny on to the participants and you are not even paying for advertising to recruit volunteers

Exactly. And why should they when sites such as this recruit for free? I think this pushes even Mr Saffron's tolerance to the limit. As I said earlier, when I see the words contract and consultant I keep my hand firmly around my wallet.

I've tried to find the Ofcom tender for this monitoring but failed, found the ones for their mobile measurements and other stuff but not this one.

Well I signed up at 10pm last night and as of 2pm today I have no data on the dashboard. It says if this is the case to email them which I have done but as of yet no reply. This isnt some kind of clever keylogger is it?

This isnt some kind of clever keylogger is it?

Don't forget to check your bank accounts now and again using another machine

In reply to a post by Banger:

Well I signed up at 10pm last night and as of 2pm today I have no data on the dashboard. It says if this is the case to email them which I have done but as of yet no reply. This isnt some kind of clever keylogger is it?

Have I got this correct?

You have spotted something from an apparently unknown company who is purporting to be acting on behalf of OFCOM?

This Company "spams" this site with multiple cross-postings until MrSaffron threantens to bar the culprit from the site - but you still signed up for it??

You downloaded some software without knowing whether it is genuine or a scammer?

You are now querying the possibility of it being a key-logger??

Please accept my apologies as it is not likely you would have done any of the above, is it??

Errrm, looked legit to me. I shall use another machine for banking Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Was the exe/zip digitally signed?

Yes by Actual Experience, exe installer.

Did you notice:-

In reply to a post by Kezkay:

Ours is slightly different, in that it captures the entire digital supply chain to several different targets out on the internet - beyond your local broadband supplier network - and also incorporates your LAN depending on where the host machine is.

So as well as, by the look of that, checking the destination of every (request) packet you send, it also has a look at what you are doing on your LAN if you have one.

Edited by RobertoS (Tue 28-Jan-14 16:00:41)

Back to telephone banking?

http://www.cityam.com/article/1389585006/actual-expe...

The company appears legal.
However I cannot understand why Ofcom would use

In reply to a post by Banger:

Errrm, looked legit to me. I shall use another machine for banking Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Yep, we have that same problem where I work!! We really wish we could get this guy (Hindsight) employed much earlier!!

Apologies if my earlier posting appeared to be patronising (I've now re-read it) it wasn't meant to be as we have all done things that, in Hindsight, wasn't perhaps the most sensible!!

Can I just justify my post by saying that I had my tongue firmly planted in my cheek when I wrote it!

In reply to a post by Banger:

Back to telephone banking?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Sir, I don't represent HindsightisFree. inc.acme. ,so please download our Free Keylogger search tool and check your passwords, Bank details, and sock under bed stash, for hidden malware .

Boltneckopen.exe:> and click ok run

Getting data now, facebook performance is yellow (avg) but everything else is green. Will wait for 24 hours of data to see how it performs.

Hi RobertoS

Apologies for the delay, I was not online yesterday.

Our measurements do not use the router at your home as the end target. Unlike a lot of other measurement tools that do this, we are actually targetting several places around the internet from your home address, and taking measurements of those.

These include a well known DNS service, iPlayer, Netflix, Skype, Facebook, and an online gaming target.

You may not be using any or all of these targets, but this is part of the point - we never, ever look at anything you use your broadband connection or computer for. Instead, we are looking at end-to-end infrastructure, and seeing how well your connection would support popular applications if you were to use them, by running the measurements through our algorithms. When you do actually use one of the applications we list, we�d therefore expect our results to show something similar to your actual experience.

Being able to tell you how things would work lets you know if it�s worth trying to use iPlayer at all, or at what time a Skype call will work best. For example, some of our BBfixers have told us that this has really helped them understand why things seem to work poorly at certain times - a very frustrating experience.

The principles behind what we do are aligned to what MOS did for the voice world, as explained in my original post. MOS worked - the algorithm reliably returned a mean opinion score that related to what the humans were feeding back. Fixed line voice over the PSTN is essentially perfect today, and this is due to MOS. It's still used, as we know.

We're doing the same - just with the capability to consider other applications.

I hope this helps.

Thanks
Kes

Edited by deleted (Wed 29-Jan-14 10:09:00)

Hi MrSaffron

This was a private tender issued to multiple parties. As mentioned in the original post, we have no way to clarify or confirm who those other parties were.

As also mentioned in the original post, the Ofcom Customer Care Team (CCT) have been briefed and will happily confirm their relationship with us should anyone want to check with them.

Thanks and regards
Kes

Hi Banger,

I'm pleased to hear you're seeing data now.

I'm also pleased to hear that you haven't had anything keylogged, or your bank account raided!

In seriousness, I've tried to make clear in the original post (containing some further context and some external links, without going TL;DR), that my company is legitimate and genuine in stature and intent with this project.

Thanks and regards
Kes

Hello again, RobertoS

Again, I would like to re-iterate that we are taking infrastructure-based measurements - the Agent does not take any information on what you are doing, or how you are doing it.

Everything it captures is completely benign, and that benign measurement data is then processed centrally by our Analytics Engine.

Our service enables a view of the complete digital supply chain between a user and services that are elsewhere. This means that rather than just concentrate on a single tail circuit link, we are also able to steer your attention towards anything else that may well be a source of impairment that is affecting your performance - which will include the LAN where the Agent is based. Again, to be clear, this is not any form of LAN navigation/mapping tool - it simply considers the path taken to get to an external target (of which for this project there are 8), nothing else. Our analytics can then bring that in to the results that show potential impairment areas.

In other words, it helps cater for the "all the lights are green, but performance is still bad" scenario.

More often than not, and as you would expect, where the overall experience of a technology service is perceived as poor or bad, the reason for that experience is not down to a single solitary point. Some of it may come from your LAN, some from your tail circuit, some from your provider's core, some from elsewhere.

This then contributes to what we, and Ofcom, are trying to achieve. How well is Digital Britain behaving, and performing?

I hope this puts rest to your thought about what we are capturing.

So is the metric opinion based, measurement based or a mixture of the too?

Also on the targets, do you take into account that some operators have CDN on their internal network, so visits to the external website may not reflect the streaming performance for example.

Also what TCP ports are used outbound - this information should be in a FAQ so those with router or PC firewalls can configure.

"How well is Digital Britain behaving"
And you wonder why people think you may be monitoring a connections activity.

Be interesting to know how you cope with say an Xbox One doing an automatic update on a LAN while your agent is running on a PC.

Hi MrSaffron

Rather than write a lengthy essay of a post, your queries are best answered by a section on our website which includes FAQ, How It Works, and Why It Works pages - I've included the links, below. Please be aware that these links go to our corporate website and not specifically the BBFix project, so other information is also contained within the same web section and the rest of the site that (for example) mentions pricing. One of the TBB users has found this previously and asked whether we therefore charge - the answer, as previously posted, is that for coporate/Enterprise setups we do. This is a specific project with Ofcom, however, so again I will re-iterate that there is no charge to consumers who choose to join us on the BBFix project.

As for CDN, yes, there are considerations there - and more importantly there are ways to ensure we target effectively. These have been considered with this project, but specific customer adjustments are seen within our corporate engagements.

FAQs - http://www.actual-experience.com/analytics/faqs

How It Works - http://www.actual-experience.com/analytics/howitworks (please note the actual Agent size varies depending upon what system it is being installed on)

Why It Works - http://www.actual-experience.com/analytics/whyitworks

Hope this helps.

Thanks
Kes

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

"How well is Digital Britain behaving"
And you wonder why people think you may be monitoring a connections activity.

Be interesting to know how you cope with say an Xbox One doing an automatic update on a LAN while your agent is running on a PC.

We are taking infrastructure measurements that once processed allow us to present a view on how that infrastructure would behave should you choose to use it in certain ways - we are not monitoring or capturing anything that identifies how you are using your machine or broadband link, or what you are doing with it.

As for your XBONE example, for that period in time then yes, your experience of trying to utilise your link for other purposes may well be affected. It is likely that our service may identify indications of buffer delay and potentially loss on certain points within the chain, for example. This would translate (potentially) to the output showing that your experience would have deteriorated during the time of that mass download/update.

In reply to a post by Kezkay:

In seriousness, I've tried to make clear in the original post (containing some further context and some external links, without going TL;DR), that my company is legitimate and genuine in stature and intent with this project.

Thanks and regards
Kes

Kes,

The question not whether your Company is legit or not, but how do we KNOW it?

You must appreciate that the Internet is beset with people suggesting that they are Legit (well, they wouldn't say otherwise, would they?)!

I suggest, in this instance, the issue is OFCOM's problem as they haven't made publically clear that they are undertaking this exercise, nor have they indicated who is undertaking it for them!

I note that you suggest that we individually contact OFCOM, but that really is NOT the way to do this!!

Hence, please excuse my natural reticence!

In reply to a post by johnjburness:

In reply to a post by Kezkay:

In seriousness, I've tried to make clear in the original post (containing some further context and some external links, without going TL;DR), that my company is legitimate and genuine in stature and intent with this project.

Thanks and regards
Kes

Kes,

The question not whether your Company is legit or not, but how do we KNOW it?

You must appreciate that the Internet is beset with people suggesting that they are Legit (well, they wouldn't say otherwise, would they?)!

I suggest, in this instance, the issue is OFCOM's problem as they haven't made publically clear that they are undertaking this exercise, nor have they indicated who is undertaking it for them!

I note that you suggest that we individually contact OFCOM, but that really is NOT the way to do this!!

Hence, please excuse my natural reticence!

Hi John,

I can completely understand and appreciate the comments you've made on this point.

The answer is that yes, ideally, Ofcom would place something on their site to publicly confirm, rather than ask individuals who wish to check to contact them. This was something that we initially asked for.

In most cases this would not have been a problem, but being an independent regulator Ofcom do not identify the parties that they are working with on their site.

This was why a compromise had to be agreed - in that it was possible for individuals to confirm with Ofcom themselves, rather than a generic message be created and published on the web.

It hasn't helped me in trying to assure communities that we are what we say we are, but it's the best we could do in this instance!

I hope that this helps.

Thanks
Kes

You talk of certain points in the chain, how do you differentiate between WiFi issues on the local LAN, versus backhaul congestion in the BT Wholesale network?

It sounds like if an ISP has users who use their connection a lot (because connection is good) your testing will actually show a poor experience?

For example my connection looks bad at 10am http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping/share/8dea1261079...
but that is because the connection was being used for downloads

Which did not really answer the questions I had.

Human experience - suggest that the human has some input opinion or otherwise. That is not clear.
Neither is how you identify where in the supply chain an issue is, a nice Network and Compute Infrastructure bubble looks good in a quick guide, but not what people who understand some technical aspects want. Remember you are selling yourself to people who may as part of their day job be running the actual internet infrastructure.

My view is that you are doing measurements that others have been doing for years before and still do now, but have provided a different analysis slant so that when presented to clients (e.g. Ofcom) the non-technical can enjoy nice infographics suggesting that Skype performs less well at certain times. Or in other words at peak times when lots of people use the Internet some services slow down or peform less well.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Which did not really answer the questions I had.

Human experience - suggest that the human has some input opinion or otherwise. That is not clear.
Neither is how you identify where in the supply chain an issue is, a nice Network and Compute Infrastructure bubble looks good in a quick guide, but not what people who understand some technical aspects want. Remember you are selling yourself to people who may as part of their day job be running the actual internet infrastructure.

My view is that you are doing measurements that others have been doing for years before and still do now, but have provided a different analysis slant so that when presented to clients (e.g. Ofcom) the non-technical can enjoy nice infographics suggesting that Skype performs less well at certain times. Or in other words at peak times when lots of people use the Internet some services slow down or peform less well.

Nor would I expect any company to give detailed information on how their analysis is collected or used. Competitive edge
As far as I am concerned commercial companies have used it, so I will give it ago.
The majority of users on this forum have no idea why their link varies and, to be honest, some of the answers show very limited knowledge
The company from my standpoint is legit and I will see what transpires.

In reply to a post by flippery:

Nor would I expect any company to give detailed information on how their analysis is collected or used

So not possible to peer review the study to validate its results? Waste of time then.

It wouldn't show for example the recent BT problems with Ubisoft.

It's clearly a load of old rubbish, unfit for purpose. It's main user would be GCHQ as another vector for spying on the public.

So if more than £30k (if memory serves) it will have been posted in the Journal of the European Union?

I did a whois lookup on Actual Experience and found an article with this quote

Launched five years ago, Actual Experience has developed a business tool to help companies to manage their digital supply chain and help improve the experience of their employees and customers.

Co-founder Dave Page said slow broadband frustrated everyone.

�The only thing that really matters to us sitting in the office working or sat at home watching BBC iPlayer is when the web browser isn�t snappy. We all get really frustrated when our experience on it is poor. Our research allows us to measure the digital world, and if we measure it we can manage it.

I think they're off on the wrong foot.

The majority of users on this forum have no idea why their link varies and, to be honest, some of the answers show very limited knowledge

I am one of this majority, and that's why I constantly use this excellent site. I trust TBB for excellent unbiased advice freely given by many willing experts whom I could name but won't, not even Bob. I consider this thread a commercial posting, given implicit authority by its very appearance on TBB, and I think Mr. Saffron's initial instinct in deleting the first post was the right one.

Edited by Malwaremike (Wed 29-Jan-14 15:45:17)

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

I did a whois lookup on Actual Experience and found an article with this quote

Launched five years ago, Actual Experience has developed a business tool to help companies to manage their digital supply chain and help improve the experience of their employees and customers.

Co-founder Dave Page said slow broadband frustrated everyone.

�The only thing that really matters to us sitting in the office working or sat at home watching BBC iPlayer is when the web browser isn�t snappy. We all get really frustrated when our experience on it is poor. Our research allows us to measure the digital world, and if we measure it we can manage it.

I think they're off on the wrong foot.

........of course Athlete's foot can be treated !!

I think they're off on the wrong foot.

I totally agree. Only one response expected on TBB. Should have said they were working with Plusnet - Would have been welcomed with welcome arms and voted best of something or other.
Would like to see them find fault with my connection.
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800x600q90/560/mhb5...
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800x600q90/35/2z7x.jpg
http://speedtest.net/result/2690543838.png

Edited by professor973 (Wed 29-Jan-14 17:18:37)

So can a slow web browser. You don't need spyware on your PC to do that. In fact getting rid of spyware is a good start.

In reply to a post by professor973:

I think they're off on the wrong foot.

I totally agree. Only one response expected on TBB. Should have said they were working with Plusnet

or Zen.

Or both [faint]

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

In reply to a post by professor973:

I think they're off on the wrong foot.

I totally agree. Only one response expected on TBB. Should have said they were working with Plusnet

or Zen.

Or both [faint]

Lol - I have suffered them all before settling with my current providers. No moaning from this grumpy old devil for a year speaks volumes about them - No tie ins, £11.22 rental, no call connection fee, per second billing and good customer service. What more could I ask for.

Thanks for your comprehensive replies to my latest two posts.

Edited by RobertoS (Wed 29-Jan-14 18:09:47)

Mines better than yours


http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3268492507

In reply to a post by Banger:

Mines better than yours


http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3268492507

Lol - Upload worse, ping worse, don't see connection for weeks without an error. How's that better? Come on, lay yours on the table for a measure up

Edited by professor973 (Wed 29-Jan-14 21:11:07)

My billion has been up for 200 days with zero errors but this maybe a billion trait.

Yeah, routers are like ISP's - You get what you pay for, so I swerve cheap BB. Homecall were door-knocking this weekend, promising they supply faster broadband and keep BT line on our Market 1 TT unbundled exchange. Young lad nearly soiled his pants when this grumpy old boy told him I knew better and he was craftily selling TT LLU

Edited by professor973 (Wed 29-Jan-14 21:34:45)

It is possible to use BT WLR3 for voice and have TalkTalk SMPF LLU broadband

Yes I know that. But he insisted on trying to sell, showing off the signup forms he had gathered. Looked to me he was keeping quiet about his suppliers, rather like the Post Office not wanting to broadcast TT I don't mind, it does not slow my connection if they sign up.

In reply to a post by Gadget:

So if more than £30k (if memory serves) it will have been posted in the Journal of the European Union?

I think you'll find it is more like £250K and that is assuming that an existing framework was not used to do the procurement (if you use a framework that was tendered via the EU then you don't need to do any form of notice in the journal).

In most cases this would not have been a problem, but being an independent regulator Ofcom do not identify the parties that they are working with on their site.

And yet I believe they openly report they are working with SamKnows for a similar function - so why aren't they acknowledging your involvement. Trust is hard won on the Internet and without Ofcom publicly acknowledging your involvement I won't be joining (and I am not about to spend time contacting Ofcom to ask them - I and they have better thing to do with out time).

Good Afternoon, Everyone

A huge thanks to those that chose to join the project, with the end goal of improving the quality of your broadband. Please keep checking your portal - your assistance is massively appreciated.

For those that took the time to look into us a little more, I thank you. For those that weren't convinced this time, perhaps in the future we can convincingly change your mind! It would be good to pick up the many different conversations that have sprouted from this thread - the TBB community is without doubt a highly interactive one.

I do appreciate the inevitable suspicion and scepticism that will show itself when something like our project comes along out of the blue, and I hope that to a reasonable extent I was able to assure those willing to consider.

Keep an eye out for us - you'll be hearing more about the work we're doing within the industry - and I look forward to the time when I can discuss this topic with great communities like this one again, knowing that people are confident that we really do work for the good guys (which includes you!)

With thanks, and kind regards
Kes

I think when a commercial organisation wants to use the forum membership in this way they should at least contribute something back to the site.

I am a member of numerous other internet forums (including an old one I run myself) and not many of them would let someone advertise in this way without paying the site something.

When they cross-post and spam the forums in the way Kezkay has I think the fee should multiply for each additional post they make

This forum has been here a long time and been incredibly useful to many of us over the years, it's clearly an audience perfect for Kezkays project so I think he should get his wallet out and show his appreciation to the site.