FCC soon to be releasing an app that will crowdsource mobile broadband speed tests

Newly sworn in FCC chair Tom Wheeler is planning to reboot a three-year-old plan to crowdsource mobile broadband speed tests. To do this, the FCC will be releasing an app that will let users test and report their mobile broadband speed.

After being sworn in earlier this week, new FCC chair Tom Wheeler is preparing to pick up where his predecessor left off. The Wall Street Journal reports that today, the FCC said it’s almost ready to preview an app that will let users test and report their mobile broadband speed. Using this data, the agency will compile its first nationwide study of mobile broadband service across different carriers — much like the broadband tests it’s been conducting over the past few years. An open meeting on Thursday, the first with Wheeler in command, will include a presentation on the app, which is set for release on Android in the spring of 2014.