[apeace]

I work for a startup ISP, and I often wonder how we can better educate the end consumer about all this.

I'm a developer but sometimes take customer support calls. One time a consumer had just gotten our 1Gbps symmetrical fiber installed, and he was testing it against his crappy 200Mbps/10Mbps high-latency existing cable. He claimed that the cable was "far better" and wanted to cancel us. Took me about a half an hour of troubleshooting and trying to convince the guy that it's virtually impossible the other connection was better. Turned out he was standing close to the old router, far from our router, using a low-spec Android phone. I had him connect to our router via Ethernet with a Macbook, and the speed test blew his mind.

The problem is that ISPs, including the one I work for, advertise only one number: bandwidth. Consumer thinks "1,000Mbps is faster than 200Mbps, so I should buy that!" They then run a speed test and whoever has the higher number is the winner. But it's not their fault for not knowing the flaw in their method, because the only marketing or education about our product that any ISP does is around that one number.

I have a lot of ideas around how better marketing/education could be achieved. But I have a lot of code to write, so, maybe one day...

In the meantime I take every opportunity to explain to folks that 200Mbps fiber != 200Mbps cable. Latency is incredibly important to how "fast" your internet feels, and of course there are a million things about your Wifi router and how/where it is set up.

[zamadatix]

A lot of ISPs include a performance test built into the modem which the customer and employees can access via a portal. For high speed plans e.g. ATT will have the installer who brings the modem, connects it, runs the test, shows the customer the speed, and then asks the customer to test their device. From there they can troubleshoot/explain any differences. Particularly around the >1 gbps plans because so few people realize most of their wired devices have that limit.

Of course if you're a "light initial touch" ISP or are more open about letting them run their own modem then this kind of approach isn't as easy to do and you're stuck with trying to educate the customer on doing the whole shebang themselves.

[apeace]

Yes, we are doing all of the above except for the on-modem speed test, which we are working on.

Having the installer run a test and talk with the customer is helpful, but a lot of people don't trust the installer. The incumbent ISPs are so evil that they've convinced consumers that all ISPs are evil tricksters. So we'll get a customer service call 10 minutes after the installer has left: "I'm not getting the speeds I'm paying for!"