French telecom authority Arcep published a new version of the industry code of conduct introduced in 2018 on Quality of Service (QoS) measurement, which adopts a data-driven ‘crowdsourcing’ approach to assess the broadband quality experienced by end-users. The code of conduct is targeted at testing tools from players such as nPerf and QoSi, with the aim to increase transparency on data collection and enable any third party to analyse results.
Among the main changes, the updated version requires that industry players provide mobile and fixed broadband end-users with information on the different elements that might impact QoS measurements and speed tests. This information includes, for example, how the use of Wi-Fi could affect the internet connection, and factors including the model/version of the operating system or the web browser installed on the equipment.
Additionally, industry players that want to comply with the code are now asked to display median, rather than average values for certain indicators, notably latency. They are also required to introduce a minimum capacity for test servers to avoid hampering test results.
Looking forward, the regulator said that a new revision of the code will be introduced to coincide with the implementation of the planned “access ID card” API, scheduled for 2022. QoS measurement tools complying with the code will be able to benefit from the features offered by this API, leading to increasingly accurate QoS tests.