By Chip Strange, Chief Strategy Officer at Ookla
The telecommunications industry is in the midst of yet another transformation. New capabilities such as artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, advances in industrial use of Wi-Fi, generational improvements to mobile networks, and expanding fiber broadband are all enabling greater flexibility and efficiency in the management of consumer expectations. However, these new capabilities are also creating more complexity for service providers. This is all happening at a time when the industry is maturing, competition is fierce, and customer growth is moderating.
Ookla is embracing this metamorphosis by using our deep trove of multi-dimensional data to deliver insights that help our customers navigate this evolving landscape.
By helping to identify potential network and coverage challenges, we empower customers to solve these issues with confidence.
Ookla is More Than a Data Company
Through acquisitions and product innovation, Ookla has created a broad portfolio of complementary solutions to help our customers. We believe that better data leads to better insights that in turn can enrich the connected experiences of people and improve business outcomes for our clients around the globe.
Ookla improves connected experiences for our customers by providing unique public and private zero - and first-party crowdsourced data, controlled network insights, real-time outage reporting, and tools for Wi-Fi network planning and optimization. Improving connectivity means creating not just better business outcomes for our customers, but better daily experiences for consumers and an opportunity to improve digital equality and growth.
The stakes are high for this next phase of connectivity. The entire world — businesses, consumers, and governments — depends on seamless connectivity, and new use cases are being unlocked every day. Behind the cellular and Wi-Fi bars that have become the background to daily life, Ookla sits as a bridge between connectivity providers, policymakers, and consumers.
We’re helping create better connectivity by providing a global perspective with shared lessons to support providers in building better networks and advancing new industry and government partnerships.
Having a Global Presence is Powerful
Ookla stands apart by delivering unmatched insights into the telecommunications marketplace, powered by real consumers using the Speedtest platform to measure actual network performance. We provide transparency and empower consumers to test and verify claims directly. This unique approach builds trust for leading operators, highlighting their superior network performance through our prestigious Speedtest Awards program. We also provide an incident detection and resolution platform with Downdetector, which serves as an early indicator for potential disruptions so that issues can be managed promptly, and customer loyalty maintained.
Our multi-faceted portfolio is matched by our global presence that enriches our understanding of the unique challenges faced by customers across various regions and enables us to drive innovation in our products. One example is the diverse needs of telecoms regulatory clients; each has a unique remit and statutory responsibilities, technical competencies, and geopolitical considerations. These diverse environments demand robust capabilities to fulfill their needs, and Ookla has considerable experience supporting them.
By providing customers with visibility into their networks, we help operators deploy capital more efficiently, maximize the value of their services to consumers and enterprises, reduce subscriber churn, and benchmark against their competition.
Ookla believes that healthy competition is vital for a healthy market, and we are committed to continuing to support it.
Our data and insights provide us with a unique opportunity to help companies understand the true experience that their customers are having on their networks. This knowledge is invaluable in a tightening subscriber market.
Building Better Outcomes through Partnerships
Ookla is also driving global connectivity forward through strategic partnerships and advocacy with other industry leaders. These partnerships allow others to benefit from Ookla’s extensive data insights and learn more about network speeds and connectivity, coverage gaps, and the important role spectrum plays in the development of wireless networks.
For example, the Dublin City Council recently partnered with Ookla to analyze Speedtest data and pinpoint areas with poor 4G and 5G connectivity. With tens of millions of data samples from diverse types of devices, used in both indoor and outdoor locations in Dublin, city officials were able to identify connectivity gaps in Dublin, which is home to more than half a million residents. This crowdsourced network performance data analysis was among the largest ever conducted by a European city authority.
In addition to commercial partnerships, Ookla is actively involved in a number of industry associations. We are a founding member of the World Broadband Association (WBBA), and I personally serve on the WBBA’s board of directors. WBBA is a growing industry association centered around the goal of accelerating the healthy development of the global telecom industry, with sustainable benefits for stakeholders, end users, and society. Ookla contributes our expertise and insights to WBBA, including being a part of the WBBA Broadband and Cloud Development Index and the Broadband Investment Guidebook, among other initiatives. The Broadband and Cloud Development Index serves as a benchmark for understanding the state of broadband and cloud services around the globe, which in turn serves as a guide for investment decisions.
Our CEO, Stephen Bye, is a member of the board of directors at CTIA, the association that represents the wireless industry in the United States. The CTIA plays a key role in advocating for an array of regulatory policies at the federal, state, and local levels.
Importantly, Ookla also makes its software and insights available on a complimentary basis to many policymakers, humanitarian organizations, academic research institutions, and others through the Ookla for Good initiative. Our work with the Development Data Partnership at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in areas of digital connectivity, accessibility, and infrastructure resiliency has led to the enhancement of digital connectivity in communities around the world.
Ookla for Good is also a partner with GSMA Intelligence, GSMA’s research arm. Our Speedtest Intelligence data is featured within the GSMA’s Mobile Connectivity Index and used to better understand the impact of spectrum assignment and mobile network speeds around the globe.
Ookla’s Growing Impact
While Ookla’s expertise is deeply rooted in collecting, correlating, and building solutions from data, our growing impact is defined by the innovative solutions and meaningful advancements we bring to the industries we serve.
In the years ahead, as networks transform and customer expectations increase, Ookla will continue to be a part of this journey by advancing our solutions in support of the complex and demanding expectations of our global clientele, and the consumers that use their infrastructure.
Exclusive: Ookla’s 2025 Mission: Better Data, Better Insights, Better Outcomes
