Is it slow internet?: This is what you have to know to measure speed and claim your supplier

Internet traffic in homes increased unprecedented, due to social confinement measures due to the coronavirus pandemic.Millions of users depend on their fixed connection plans to work, study, entertain and communicate.However, the fact that there are so many people hung to the same network simultaneously generates generalized failures and above all slowness.

The home connection plan promises a speed, but the cables and fibers that connect it to the Internet are not used by a single user.That translates to that if all your neighbors and you connect to time, the network will be slower.

If you hired a 50 megas plan, for example, what you bought is the ability to load and download information (data packages) to a network at that speed: 50 megabits per second (MBPS).

Unlike mobile internet plans, in which it is paid for total data consumption (1, 2, 5, 10 GB), on the fixed Internet allows access to a connection and send information packages distributing the weight.Each image, each message, each video, everything that travels online has a weight equivalent to bits.

That is, if you have to upload an image that weighs 40 MB (megabytes), to a 50 Mbps connection, that image is uploaded in a matter of 160 seconds.Each byte is equivalent to 8 bits.Therefore, if you have 30 megabytes or 100 megabytes what changes is the ability to transport information packages in less time.

How to measure the speed of your Internet connection?

To measure what is the current speed of your connection, you can use web and mobile applications available on the Internet.Among them are: ookla, fast.com, Speedcheck, Speakeasy, among other services.

You should usually connect to the network that you want to measure from your device and activate the measurement button.You will find those speed meters in this iprofesional note.

You should keep in mind that some applications indicate the speed in MB (megabytes) and not in MBPS (megabits per second), so you will have to convert what your plan is.

Also remember that not all plans promise the same loading and download speeds (sometimes the 100 megabytes are promise for "drop" of content), so this can vary according to what they offer you in the plan.The contract with your operator must include the type of Internet access service with the contracted speed, and the maximum capacity included in the plan according to the rates.

Why does the Internet get so slow?

Telecommunications networks are usually described as "information highways" because analogy with physical pathways and car traffic flows similarly.

If you want to watch a movie at night in a video application via streaming, at the same time as the majority of your neighbors are also on social networks and watching movies, it will not matter if your router is prepared for 100 megabytes, all theData packages will move slowly.

There are several factors that limit the speed of your connection.For example, if you have several devices hanging on the same Wi-Fi network all simultaneously doing activities (watching videos, teleconferences, downloading files and playing online), the speed you hired will be distributed among all those data packages simultaneously.What translates into a slower internet.

To get out of doubt, you can connect your computer directly to the network cable and perform the speed test.In this case, the measurement must throw the speed you hired.

Can you claim for the speed of your Internet connection?

In mobile plans, you can claim for those megabytes that you could not use, but what the fixed connections sell are loading stops and guarantee the promised speed in "normality conditions".

This works like this because when installing the infrastructure or selling the services, the building or neighborhood.That is, the fiber that reaches your apartment goes by the same cable as that of the entire building.

Operators assume that not always all people will be in the same place at the same time, so not all will use simultaneous infrastructure.However, Pandemia has forced the sector to have infrastructure reserves to ensure that the service does not fall.

According to the last available report from the Internet Chamber (CABASE), in March 2019, connections with speed greater than 20MBPS represented only 29.02% of the total market, while by March 2020 they already reached a 47, 97%, generating great growth of the average speed, which went from 17 Mbps in March 2019 to 38 Mbps in March last year.

As part of this process, there is also a substantial decrease in connections with speeds below 20 Mbps, which fall from 70.98% to 52.03% of the total connections from one year to the other.

Alternatives to claim for the speed of the Internet connection

What administrative and legal resources today have a user in the event that your Internet Services provider provides a speed of uprising and decline in your home connection lower than the contracted?What are the instances that the user should meet for their claim?

The lawyer specialized in Technological Law Macarena Pereyra Rozas explained to iprofesional that "the first and easiest resource is a consumer's defense.It is a free process and in each national, provincial or municipal jurisdiction there is a consumer defense agency ".

According to this lawyer, the first point is to make a claim to the supplier."In case of silence or repetition in breach, the citizen can go to defense to the consumer".

It is not necessary to send a letter document to the supplier."You can make the claims by the roads enabled by the supplier for claims and must record the claim," he said.Nor is legal assistance required for these procedures, "although yes, some patience," Pereyra Rozas admitted.

The complaint can also be made to the National Communications Entity (ENACOM) for which the consumer has previously made a claim to the service provider.The process before the ENACOM is carried out by the remote processing platform (TAD) that requires fiscal key level 2 here.

The lawyer Sebastián to.Gamen, specialized in commercial law, computer law and information and communication technologies, recalled iprofesional that "there is always the way to resort to the courts of justice, although most of the time the legal costs and the amount that can beObtain as compensation persuade the consumer not to use this route ".

For Gamen, "unfortunately the judges in our country are aversion to apply fines and punitive damage exemplifiers that motivate the consumer to wantIt is a bad business ".

When should it claim for connection speed?

Does the supplier have any legal and technical margin to reject such a claim?For example, is up to 25% less than the contracted speed?For Pereyra Rozas, "differences in the speed or quality of the service are admitted to the extent that the differences are sporadic and transitory, but not in the case in which it is a fixed and constant decrease in the speed and quality of the service".

Gamen said that in Argentina "that is not standardized, so I understand that each consumer can demonstrate the damage suffered.It will not be the same who uses the Internet for entertainment, who who is a programmer or for his special work circumstance must have a very high speed minimum, and manages to prove that ".

The lawyer cited as an example the legislation of Brazil, where the service provider "must provide a minimum of 40% of the agreed speed and a monthly average total of 80%".

That is, "if I hired 100m always the speed offered must be at least 40m and the monthly average at 80m.So if the company offers for many days a low speed but above the minimum, it must comply with the monthly average offering the rest of the days a speed above 100m to compensate and reach the monthly average ".

Test protection on connection speed

Lawyers Fernanda Lacey and Claudio Daniel Boada, leaders of the Union of Users and Consumers, were categorical to iprofesional: "There is no possibility of delivering less traffic capacity than the hired.Band wide must coincide the entire day with the Bandwidths hired.There is no possibility of reducing them - not for the writing of most subscription forms there is this possibility - since they commit to a result ", with a certain bandwidth and bandwidth.

"That result", the bank width for example, "is a benefit of‘ minimal ’and at all times", even in the highest consumption of all users, "should be fulfilled".

"The magnitude of the reduction is unjustifiable.Think that you can reduce a quarter of the speed of up and down at a time or part of the day is unacceptable.This would be equivalent for example to operating with the wide hired 18 hours per day (24 hours less 25 %) or that a cable operator allows you to see an incomplete grid with respect to the hired one, "the lawyers said.

They also recommended "carefully observe advertising and brochures (and it is very useful".

Background to claim for connection speed

In Argentina there is a history of cases in administrative and/or judicial instances on claims for the speed of the Internet connection.Pereyra Rozas said that there are "consumer defense resolutions where attention is drawn or fines are applied to companies providing for deficiencies in services".

In administrative instances, Gamen recalled a resolution of the Undersecretariat of Defense of Competition and Consumer Defense in 2004 against Telecom, Telefónica, Impsat and Prima companies to reestablish the speed of the Internet service they had hired.

The claim was originated by the Civil Association active consumers claiming for the decrease in speed and the interconnection capacity of broadband service, which caused a decrease in service quality and connection problems at peak hours.

Consumer Defense sanctioned companies, with the April 2004 resolution, for violation of article 19 of Law 24.240: "Those who provide services of any nature are obliged to respect the terms, deadlines, conditions, modalities, reserves and other circumstances according to which they have been offered, publicized or agreed"."That antecedent shows that new laws are not needed to help the consumer, but will apply those that already exist," said Gamen.

Lacey and Boada commented that "it seems that there is a high degree of resignation in users in the face of it, or it is very difficult to determine and prove the breach, beyond knowing that it exists intuitively".

Internet as a public service: New era to make claims?

Through Decree 690/2020, the National Government established the Internet declaration as a public service.This measure will have any legal impact for this type of claims?For Pereyra Rozas "it may be that it changes because it begins to be a more regulated activity and being basic service must guarantee certain minimum standards".

Gamen added that this government statement "can help a lot and in my opinion will improve Internet service".However, he repaired that "before any legislation is goodwill.If there is a will on the part of the companies to comply with the contracts, the law goes to the background ".

According to Lacey and Boada, "being a public service presupposes a greater need for users to obtain the qualities committed, for all users and throughout the national territory.But the criteria on the quality of hiring are the same before and after this statement.These quality criteria are applicable to all consumption hiring ".