How to test your mobile connection speed
One of the interesting challenges of playing media over mobile networks is that network data speeds vary. A lot.
Data speeds are measured in kilobits per second, commonly abbreviated kbps. One kilobit can hold 125 characters of text, or about this much:
This little piggy went to market. This little piggy went home. This little piggy has roast beef. This little piggy had none.
Music ripped from CD is usually encoded at 128 kbps, or as much data in the previous paragraph 128 times per second. That’s considered a pretty high “bitrate” for audio-only streams — generally, audio optimized for mobile should be encoded at bitrates closer to 32 or 48 kbps to work reliably on multiple mobile networks under various conditions.
On an EVDO network you might find that you’re able to get 300 kbps just after lunch, but can’t even break 50 kbps during rush hour the same afternoon. Kinoma Player does the best it can regardless of network conditions, but you won’t have a great experience if your device is data-starved.
When content doesn’t work I get curious, so I start getting testy. Specifically, I test my download speed to see what kind of performance I’m getting from my network.
Here’s how to find out what kind of data speeds you’re getting at any given time.
- Using your Treo, open Web (Blazer) and go to kinoma.com
- Click Gallery, pick your device, than find and click Test your connection speed (the link just above the Audio section)
- Click 100k to start a speed test using 100 KB worth of data
Once the test is complete your page should refresh automatically and display your current data speed. I like to run the test two or three times to make sure that a single test isn’t a fluke.
