- Ookla launched Speedtest Pulse, a new hardware tool for ISPs that helps technicians diagnose and optimize Wi-Fi performance
- Pulse examines both wired and wireless connections, scans the RF environment and offers client-specific diagnostics
- A “leave-behind” version arrives next year that will also do ongoing performance monitoring
Ookla – the company that owns Speedtest, RootMetrics, Downdetector and more – is now bringing to market a new piece of hardware to measure and improve Wi-Fi.
It’s called Speedtest Pulse, and it’s aimed at ISPs that want to give their technicians more firepower, whether they’re installing new network gear or responding to service issues at a home or enterprise.
Speedtest Pulse attaches to a technician’s mobile phone, so they can move around the home or office to diagnose the problem. It’s not Ookla’s first foray into hardware. In 2018, the company acquired Ekahau, which developed the Sidekick 2 device for Wi-Fi site surveys and spectrum analysis.
Here’s how the Pulse works. First, a technician attaches the Pulse to a modem or router to evaluate the inbound connection and isolate any issues before testing the Wi-Fi. Second, it will measure wireless performance, leveraging the well-known Speedtest server network. Third, it scans the RF environment to identify Wi-Fi problems and then provides recommendations for fixing whatever may be the cause.
Lastly, there’s something called a Client Analysis feature that allows a technician to solve client-specific problems without going through the rigmarole of capturing every data packet and analyzing them.
Pulse targets ISPs, enterprises
The debut of Ookla’s Speedtest Pulse comes as cable companies continue to hype the quality of their Wi-Fi networks, so cable ISPs would certainly be a target customer.
“There’s some early indications there is a lot of good traction that we’re making on that front,” acknowledged Chip Strange, chief strategy officer at Ookla.
But any sort of fixed line provider is going to manage a router and Wi Fi inside a home, “so it's really any service provider that's providing fixed services, and that's inclusive of fixed wireless access (FWA) as well,” he said.
According to statistics from Techsee, 68% of households reported Wi-Fi problems in the past 12 months and 39% of those incidents saw a technician dispatched to look at the issue. Of those, about 20% of the visits failed to resolve the issue.
“What we’re ultimately trying to do here is embrace the fact that Wi-Fi is a disproportionately larger part of the customer experience, whether that be a residential consumer or an enterprise, and then applying the Wi-Fi instrumentation and diagnostic capabilities so they can close out those installations more successfully,” Strange told Fierce.
Ultimately, the primary beneficiaries of this tool are the communication service providers and consumers, he said.
“If you have a better optimized Wi-Fi network in your home or office, your personal productivity is going to go up,” he said. Same goes for the service providers. “We all know that truck rolls cost hundreds of dollars and there are real economic consequences associated with that.”
Ookla didn’t share pricing information, but like most hardware, it will be sold on a tiered basis, he said.
Ookla’s also got another feature, coming next year, that is a “leave behind” tool. As implied, the technician leaves the device at the site to collect performance data to establish baselines, identify intermittent problems and detect performance degradation. That in part is designed to avoid repeat technician visits to the home or office.
What about private networks?
Since a lot of 5G private wireless network deployments are replacing Wi-Fi, Fierce asked if there’s a product in the works for that specific type of installation.
“Right now, the product is exclusively Wi-Fi, but the premise is absolutely the same where you need to be able to validate that your private 5G network is also delivering service everywhere that you need it,” he said. “This is just the first generation.”
It’s an over-used way to end a story, but in this case, it’s apt: Stay tuned (pun intended!)