Back in May, Netflix launched a simple speed test available to users worldwide via the site fast.com, an initiative to help users keep their Internet Service Providers honest. Today, Netflix has launched dedicated iOS and Android versions of the Fast Speed Test app, so users can easily test speeds no matter where they are, using their smartphone.
Netflix went into some technical detail on their blog, explaining their approach to the app:
We also decided on the following high-level technical approaches:
- To open several connections for the test, varying the number depending on the network conditions
- To run the test on several of our wide network of Netflix production OCAs, but only on servers that have enough capacity to serve test traffic while simultaneously operating within acceptable parameters to deliver optimal video quality to members
- To measure long running sessions – eliminating connection setup and ramp up time and short term variability from the result
- To dynamically determine when to end the test so that the final results are quick, stable, and accurate
- To run the test using HTTPS, supporting IPv4 and IPv6
Below are our tests of the FAST Speed Test iOS app, on Shaw’s WideOpen Internet 150 plan (which so far has been pretty consistent and fast, minus a short outage yesterday):
As you can see above on the right, we threw in a Speedtest.net test for a comparison, which is what the FAST app also suggests users to check out.
Click here to download FAST Speed Test for iOS in the App Store.
