Bittimittari.fi
Bittimittari.fi is a service provided by Traficom for measuring the speed and quality of internet connections, which you can use to find out a variety of information about your own internet connection. In addition to measuring the speed and quality of your internet connection, the service will help you interpret the results of the measurements and asses whether your current internet connection is ideally suited to your needs.
The Bittimittari.fi service can be used via a mobile application (iOS or Android) and the most common web browsers. The service does not require user registration.
When you launch the mobile application for the first time, the service will ask for your permission to use the access rights and location data of your device. The application asks for these permissions in order to be able to provide comprehensive information about measurements. This information includes the operator, or ISP, on whose network the measurements are carried out and the network technology of the network being measured. The application can be used to carry out measurements even without providing these permissions, but in this case the information provided about measurement results will not be as comprehensive. You can also change the permissions of the Bittimittari.fi application later via your mobile device’s settings.
When used via a browser, the service does not collect any data about the user’s location.
Traficom collects data on the measurements carried out on the service and may use this data in its supervisory and monitoring work. The results of measurements can be used to examine the regional functioning of mobile networks and generate a situational picture on them to facilitate supervisory tasks, for example. The results of the measurement carried out via browsers and the application are also utilised in the quality analysis of Finnish fixed network and mobile network internet connections and the comparison of marketed connection speeds and the speeds actually achieved by users. Traficom will publish measurement data collected via Bittimittari.fi in the service Data.Traficom maps.
The service’s privacy statement (External link)
What do the measurement results mean?
Measuring the speed and quality of your internet connection is easy, but what do the numbers in the measurement results actually mean for you and the other people using the same connection? Do you watch a lot of films and need the image quality to be as high as possible, or is the connection used primarily for surfing the web and bank services? Internet consumption can be divided between users in the same way as electricity or water consumption, so it is also important to know how many users a connection has when assessing its sufficiency.
Recognising that the requirements of users and services vary on a case-by-case basis, the Bittimittari.fi service assesses how well the measured connection meets your needs based on five common use cases:
- web surfing and public services
- video calls and remote work/studying
- watching films and TV in high quality
- quick downloading of updates, content sharing or use of cloud services
- online multiplayer games.
The “What do these results mean?” section of the Bittimittari.fi service helps you assess how relevant the different use cases are for you or your family.Based on the measurement results and your responses, the service assigns an overall grade for your connection and tells you how well the measured internet connection corresponds to your selected use cases. Please note that the results are only indicative and describe an individual measurement result based on your responses. In other words, an individual measurement result is not representative of the overall quality of your internet connection, as the speed and quality of a connection can vary depending on the time of day. For a more comprehensive picture of the functioning and quality of your connection, we recommend carrying out multiple measurements over the course of the day.
What are the assessments of the quality of the internet connection provided in the measurement results based on?
Traficom has determined the limit values for download speed, upload speed and latency that the measurement result is compared to based on its own measurements, recommendations provided by services and expert opinions. It should be noted, however, that an individual use case can actually involve the use of numerous different applications, the technical requirements of which can vary greatly. Furthermore, the user’s experience of quality is very personal and also affected by the device used, especially the size and resolution of the screen.
The assessments are based on the assumption that the relevant services are being used on a screen bigger than a mobile device. The purpose of the graded assessments is to allow even users unfamiliar with the technical side of things to assess the functioning of their connection. Even a connection that receives a lower grade may be sufficient for using services smoothly, but may require the user to be more patient or put up with more limited or lower quality services. Connections that receive the highest grades will work smoothly within the use case in question regardless of the service used.
The requirements of different services typically increase over time, which is why Traficom will continue to update the related limit values as necessary.
See the limit values used by the service.