Paris, 7 December 2014
On 25 November, ARCEP published a beta version of its new observatory, measuring the quality of fixed internet access services in France.
This observatory was put into place to improve the information available to users, and to provide the Authority with the means to satisfy the responsibilities assigned to it by Law, namely to supervise the overall quality of internet access services. ARCEP is nevertheless keen to reiterate that this is a beta version, and that users need to apply utmost caution when interpreting the data issued in this first summary report.
Measuring the quality of fixed internet access services is a complex process, and one that is still being developed. The system will require a number of improvements over the coming periods of analysis. This beta version, which ARCEP chose to publish for the sake of transparency, therefore needs to be read with these caveats in mind. Among other things, these results do not make it possible to compare the overall quality of the different ISPs’ access products.
Following the recent launch of communication campaign, ARCEP is thus keen to reiterate the warning the accompanied the publication of this first report:
WARNING Although this publication is the product of three years of intensive efforts by the technical committee, devoted to establishing a robust protocol for measuring the quality of internet access services, and one that enables accurate and detailed comparisons of the different ISPs, the process of implementing the protocol reveal a number of technical issues. Given the limited hindsight, however, and the inherent risks of error when any such system is launched, ARCEP nevertheless asks readers to apply caution when interpreting the data contained in this first summary report, which corresponds to a test run, i.e. a beta version. It also recommends that any dissemination of this data be accompanied by the disclaimers on the methodology mentioned in the report. ARCEP will continue to work with all of the stakeholders (consumer associations, ISPs and technical experts) on improving and fine tuning this measurement system. |
Linked documents
Observatory (pdf - 2.08MB) (in French)