NET.mede is a tool, created by ANACOM, which can be used to measure Internet access speed - 450 thousand tests were performed using the tool during its first year. Of these, about 420 thousand were to evaluate Internet connection speed and 29 thousand were performed to check for traffic shaping (management by operators of application speeds).
On average, the NET.mede tool was used to perform about 37,000 tests per month. The majority of tests were carried out between 6 pm and midnight, the period of the day in which most Internet traffic is generated.
In total, NET.mede registered a total of 533 thousand visits during its first year, with 1.384 million page views. 95% of all visits were made from users in Portugal and 5% from abroad, with increased use of NET.mede by users based in Brazil, UK, France and the United States.
The average duration of each session was 3.52 minutes.
ANACOM launched NET.mede on 2 December 2013 in order to provide the market with more information and transparency. With this tool, an Internet user can find out the real speed of their Internet connection and compare it with the speed they have contracted with their provider. This consumer service gives Internet users objective information, which may prove useful in dealing with their service provider, in particular when enquiring about the quality of service provided.
NET.mede can also be used to test for traffic shaping, a mechanism used by operators to manage Internet traffic by applying restrictions to traffic and to contracted speeds. By selecting the protocol to be tested - BitTorrent and Flash Video - users can check to see whether there is evidence of traffic shaping on their connection.
