Ofcom releases app to check home broadband wi-fi

Oblivion

How utterly pointless is that! You don't need an app to tell you your wi-fi coverage is lacking.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-34968493

Antispam

http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/news/ofcom-launches-wifi-checker/

Just tested it my wifi is fine

JJ_Egan

Similar been available on Play Store for years .

Oblivion

The joke is that the app will give entirely different results depending on how wi-fi efficient the device is that it's downloaded to. If you've got a 'deaf' device you'll get lousy results which could be totally wrong. Bet they never thought of that.

kwikbreaks

It has links to SamKnows so in theory should be good/ In practice it's pretty poor imo..

Frequent "unable to completes" for no obvious reason although my betting is that their server can't cope with demand since it appeared on the BBC site.

When it does run through the results displayed (even the complete report) are very Janet and John with no details of what exactly was measured.

The help page is big on Xmas tree lights which may well impact ADSL speeds if faulty but I really can't see affecting WiFi other than as a general speed reduction of the connection overall. As most lights are now LED I doubt they have the impact they did in the days of thermocouple circuit breakers which could spark.

== update ==

There is a white paper on the methodology used which does seem reasonable.

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/research/infrastructure/2015/downloads/whitepaper.pdf

The app still seems to show virtually no detail of the results achieved just a simple good/bad which imo is an opportunity missed.