Measuring Your Internet Access

1. Overview

Access to broadband internet is increasingly considered a basic utility — but speeds, reliability, and affordability vary widely across neighborhoods, regions, and demographics. Measuring these differences is a first step toward improving internet equity.

In this activity, you’ll use broadband speed tests and network tools to measure your own connection and interpret what those results mean. Then, you’ll connect your findings to real-world questions being tackled by researchers at UChicago’s Internet Equity Initiative.

2. Learning Objectives

By the end of this session, you should be able to:

Run and interpret basic broadband performance tests (speed, latency, packet loss)
Understand what performance measurements reveal — and what they hide
Identify disparities in broadband quality and access across users or locations
Connect personal measurements to broader research questions about internet equity

3. Activity

Step 1: Run Speed Tests

Use two or more different broadband measurement tools. Examples include:

For each test, record:

Download speed (Mbps)
Upload speed (Mbps)
Latency (ms)
Time of day / test location
Which test reported the highest and lowest values?

Optional: If you’re using a laptop or mobile device, try the test on different networks (e.g., campus Wi-Fi, cellular, home network).

Step 2: Dig Deeper with Browser DevTools (Optional)

Open your browser’s developer tools (F12 or Inspect → Network tab) and load a large website (e.g., nytimes.com, cnn.com). Watch for:

How long it takes to load different resources (e.g., images, scripts)
Whether any content is served via a CDN (e.g., Cloudflare, Akamai)

What does the network waterfall tell you about performance beyond raw speed?

Step 3: Relate to Equity and Infrastructure

In your group, discuss:

Would your test results meet the FCC’s definition of broadband (25 Mbps down / 3 Mbps up)?
Could your current connection support remote work, school, or telehealth reliably?
What assumptions about privilege, geography, or affordability underlie your results?

Compare your experiences with others in the group. Look for disparities in:

Network performance
Provider quality
Type of access (fiber, cable, DSL, mobile)
Stability over time or across locations

4. Discussion

Let’s connect your findings to larger research questions:

Why do researchers care about where broadband works well — and where it doesn’t?
What types of data are needed to make policy decisions about broadband equity?
Who is responsible for collecting that data — users, ISPs, governments, or researchers?
What might be missing from your measurements (e.g., cost, outages, data caps)?

We’ll wrap up by discussing how student-contributed data could support projects like the Internet Equity Initiative — and what ethical considerations come with collecting broadband performance data at scale.