Quality survey

You should carry out the quality survey if you want more detailed information about the quality of your fixed internet connection or if you suspect, based on individual measurements, that your internet connection might be defective. The quality survey takes a total of four hours without interruptions, during which time the system will automatically carry out individual measurements every five minutes. After the quality survey is complete, you can print out a quality report that summarises the most important information about the measurements carried out during the survey. The report will also clearly show you whether the quality of your fixed internet connection corresponds to the quality promised by the operator in your subscriber connection agreement. If the report indicates that the quality of your internet connection falls short of what has been promised and you would like to issue a complaint about this to your telecommunications operator, please carry out two separate quality surveys and print out/save their individual reports to present to your operator.

A certified quality survey, the report of which can be used as the basis for issuing a complaint to a telecommunications operator, can only be carried out on a fixed internet connection subject to a dedicated agreement with a telecommunications operator.

For more information on connection defects, please visit the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority’s website (External link).

The Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom has certified on 30 November 2023 the quality assessment mechanism as a quality assurance tool for liability for defects with Regulation 58 . The quality assessment mechanism is intended for internet connections considered fixed network connections, with a maximum speed of 100/100 Mbit/s.

More information about the Regulation and its application (External link)

What kind of devices and which browsers can I use to carry out the quality survey?

The quality survey can be carried out using any device that is connected to a modem, router or network interface device by cable. The quality survey is not intended to be carried out on mobile devices, such as smartphones or tablets, but you can still carry out individual measurements for your own use on such devices.

The quality survey can be carried out on the most common web browsers (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari).

How should I prepare for the quality survey and what should I take into account before starting it?

The quality survey is designed to measure the quality of fixed internet connections. The only thing that the quality report generated based on it reliably describes is whether the fixed internet connection meets the quality levels defined in the telecommunications operator’s agreement terms. The quality survey works as designed only with fixed connections subject to a dedicated agreement with a telecommunications operator. If you are using a connection that is not subject to a dedicated agreement between you and a telecommunications operator (such as a basic broadband connection provided by your housing company or a broadband connection provided by your employer), you can still carry out the quality survey, but only a party to the agreement with the telecommunications operator (which, in this case, you are not) can issue a complaint about a defective connection to the telecommunications operator.

The quality survey is not intended for measuring the quality of mobile broadband connections.

Before starting the quality survey, bring up your subscriber connection agreement and take into account the following factors that affect connection quality:

• Make sure that the device that you are using to carry out the quality survey has all the latest antivirus, browser and operating system updates downloaded and installed. Having any of these start to download or install during a measurement can affect measurement results.
• Be sure to close any software and processes running in the background on the device used for the survey (such as other browser tabs, open applications, VPN) and make sure that the device will not go into lockdown or power saving mode during the survey. Do not turn off your antivirus software, but make sure that it will not look for software updates or start a virus scan during the survey. To ensure this, it is a good idea to carry out antivirus software updates and scans just before starting the survey.
• Make sure that no smart devices (such as smart TVs, game consoles, mobile devices, other smart home devices) have wired or wireless (WLAN/Wi-Fi) access to the internet connection being measured during the survey.
• Please make sure to turn off Wi-Fi on your mobile phone and tablet as well.
• Double-check the connection that you are about to conduct the survey on! The only way to carry out a reliable quality survey is to connect the computer or other device used for the survey directly to the modem/router or network interface device by Ethernet cable. Do not carry out the survey on a WLAN/Wi-Fi connection!

You can find your subscriber connection agreement on the online service of your operator’s website or by contacting your operator directly, for example.

What happens during the quality survey?

The quality survey will take four hours, during which time the system will automatically carry out individual measurements every five minutes. At the start of each individual measurement, the meter will start up, and after the measurement the service will display the measured latency, download speed and upload speed. The download and upload speeds of each measurement are also added to the bar chart. The bar chart also displays the minimum, normally available and maximum speeds defined in your agreement that you entered in the background information questionnaire of the quality survey. This makes it easy to see how the measurement results relate to the information provided on your agreement.

The remaining time of the quality survey and the number of measurements completed remain visible for the entire duration of the survey.

The service will notify you once the quality survey is finished. After this, you can print out or save the quality report generated by the service. The quality survey can be cancelled midway, but you cannot continue the same survey after cancelling. Instead, you will have to start a new quality survey from the beginning.

How should I interpret the quality report?

After the quality survey is finished, the service will present you with a quality report in PDF format, which you can print out or save. In addition to the agreement information that you provided via the background information questionnaire, the report includes a summary of the download and upload speeds, more detailed information about each individual measurement carried out by the system and the download and upload speed bar graphs that were displayed during the survey. The bar graph illustrates how the measured speeds relate to the minimum, normally available and maximum speeds promised by the telecommunications operator in your subscriber connection agreement.

Example of the quality report that you can print out

For fixed network internet connections, telecommunications operators are required to indicate in their terms of agreement the minimum, normally available and maximum speeds that they can realistically promise for their service.

The maximum speed of a fixed connection must be such that the end user can expect to receive it at least some of the time, such as once a day. However, even if the promised maximum speed is not reached during the quality survey, this does not necessarily mean that the service is defective. For a more comprehensive idea of the quality of your connection, you should carry out quality surveys on different days and at different times of day.

The normally available speed of a fixed connection should be 90% of the maximum speed, and it should be achieved 90% of the time during each four-hour period. For example, using a connection with a maximum speed of 100 Mbit/s and thus a normally available speed of 90 Mbit/s, no more than four quality survey measurements in a series of 48 measurements should fail to reach a speed of 90 Mbit/s.

The minimum speed of a fixed broadband connection must be at least 70% of the maximum speed when the maximum speed is no more than 100 Mbit/s. As a rule, the minimum speed should be achieved at all times.

More information on Traficom’s opinion regarding the reasonable method of indicating the speed of internet access services (External link)

The quality report seems to indicate that my connection is defective, what should I do?

If the quality report indicates that your internet connection might be defective, carry out a second quality survey on another day. The recommendation is that the second quality survey should be carried out within one week of the first, such as on the next day. You will need two separate quality survey reports generated at two different times in order to submit a complaint to your telecommunications operator. If your internet connection is included in your flat’s maintenance charge and you have not made a separate agreement with a telecommunications operator for it, please contact your property manager or the housing company board about the potential defect.

Potential problems during the quality survey

The IP address of the device used for the quality survey may change during the survey. This can happen if the device switches from using a wired connection to using a wireless (WLAN/Wi-Fi) connection, for example. Since the quality survey can only be carried out on a fixed connection, the change of IP address will end the quality survey, after which you will need to start over. All the measurements of the quality survey must be carried out on the same fixed connection.

The quality survey may stop if you open another browser window. The survey may also end up stopping prematurely due to connection errors.

Please make sure that the device used for the quality survey will not go into lockdown or power saving mode during the survey. We recommend that you disable the features for the duration of the survey.