The FCC announced a new initiative that it is intended to measure mobile broadband performance and compare claims made by providers such as Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ), AT&T (NYSE:T) and others that their services provide certain speeds of delivery.
The agency has scheduled an open meeting for Sept. 21 to discuss the various ways to measure mobile broadband performance and has said that the goal of the program is to find comparisons and analyses that are "valuable to the consumer and spur competition among service providers."
The FCC has a similar program for home broadband service that measures the broadband speeds of Internet and cable providers.
The agency also released a "State of the Union" report on broadband last month. In that report it found that U.S. wireline, cable and wireless companies have invested more than a trillion dollars since 1996 and $66 billion just in 2011.
It also found that 98 percent of Americans have access to either fixed or mobile broadband at 4 Mbps down and 1 Mbps up, and 90 percent have access to both wired and wireless providers.
