They are not the only ones, but a few days ago we saw that Digi boasted of having been recognized “As the fastest in Spain, far exceeding the speed registered by the rest of the operators by the prestigious Ookla® Speedtest Awards ™”. The reality is that this does not indicate much, although the operators are in charge of reminding us of press release after press release. In the case of Grupo MásMóvil, more or less the same happens when we are reminded that they are “the operator with the fastest fiber network in Spain in 2020 according to a study by the company nPerf.”
The fastest operator in what and for what
To say that we are the fastest operator based on a single study or speed meter is something that does not really add anything to the customer. In fact, in ADSLZone we have our own Speed Test that would help us to crown an operator as the fastest in Spain. However, this would be done in a quite skewed and limited, despite having thousands of samples or measurements.
All these studies speak simply of measurements made over a period of time, but they never or almost never specify the servers against which those measurements have been made. It is not removed an average speed They offer various services such as web browsing through the 100 most visited pages in the country, access to Google Maps, Gmail, Outlook, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok or Instagram, downloading files directly or via FTP, access to Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, HBO or Disney + … and so on, a myriad of basic services that we use every day.
In addition, it is enough to face two or three studies to see that some of them should be wrong, but the reality is that all of them are correct according to their measurements. In fact, in the two previous tests we see how the leader with the fastest connection in the country is a different one (Digi or MásMóvil). There are many problems try to offer an absolute truth and above it is not the most important of a connection.
Contracted speed, modalities, samples …
There are aspects such as the contracted speed (vs the received) or the modalities offered by an operator (If Digi offers 300 Mbps or 1 Gbps, it will be difficult for an operator like Simyo to be faster with 100 Mbps or 300 Mbps). In addition, the number of samples also affects, although later correction mechanisms, percentiles and other statistical arguments are applied.
It could be fairer to carry out measurements of the same modalities to see who offers more depending on what was contracted, that is, to face all 300 Mbps connections, 600 Mbps or 1 Gbps connections, as they perfectly argue in The confidential. In addition, it is enough to check that with the fiber we receive the contracted speed If not, we may have a problem that our carrier needs to fix.
Users should stop paying attention to these figures or at least take them as one more piece of information when choosing an operator. These should be added to the incident studies or breakdown resolution times, to the price, to the specific offers, to the coverage and even to the experience of people who deserve us trust. In short, a speed study cannot be an element to boast of having the “best fiber in Spain”.