The Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) of Singapore has launched a mobile app that aims to engage consumers to obtain better insights into consumers’ mobile broadband usage experience and to help improve their experience.
MyConnection SG, designed to run in the background, will collect and send anonymized information about networks back to IDA. It will gather usage experience from users’ mobile phones, such as broadband speed, latency and coverage on mobile networks such as 2G, 3G and 4G, as well as on Wi-Fi networks.
Users can also use the app to check upload and download speeds and give feedback to IDA on their mobile broadband experience in a particular location.
The pilot will run for six months and participation from consumers is voluntary. If the pilot is successful, IDA said it will implement MyConnection SG as a longer-term measure together with the National Internet Measurement Infrastructure (NIMI) to enhance information transparency and improve service quality for consumers.
NIMI is a crowdsourcing measure IDA has undertaken since 2009 to gather consumers’ residential fixed broadband experience. NIMI measures the broadband speeds experienced by selected consumers at home. Data from measurement devices installed in the households of volunteers is collected monthly and published on the IDA website.
This information is meant to help consumers make informed choices when deciding on a residential fixed broadband plan.
“As part of Singapore’s drive to be a Smart Nation, IDA is continuing our efforts towards connectivity for everyone, everywhere, and all the time. Crowdsourcing provides us with anonymized and aggregated data to better understand the quality of consumers’ mobile broadband experience all around the island," said Jacqueline Poh, Managing Director, IDA.