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Measuring Broadband America (MBA) is a research initiative which gathers independent data about broadband performance in the United States of America. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) launched the project in 2010 with the intention to better understand how mobile and fixed Internet performs throughout the country.

The project's funding goals were to build a national measurement platform from which the Internet performance of every American home could be measured, and to carry out strategic reports to encourage improvement for American consumers.

For more information about the MBA, please refer to the FCC’s Measuring Broadband America Program. Additional information is also available in our FAQs.

The MBA measurement platform consists of many thousands of hardware test agents, called Whiteboxes, that run Internet performance tests from real homes across the country, as well as smartphone applications. MBA test results have informed a large number of academic studies, including studies undertaken by the FCC, such as the Measuring Broadband America report, now in its tenth year. The MBA platform is also used for other important work, such as the FCC's assessments of Internet Performance following natural disasters, including Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico (2018) and Hurricane Dorian in Florida (2019).

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) awarded grants from the FCC's Connect America Fund, which targets underserved areas of the country to ensure every American will have access to good-quality Internet, will also be able to use the MBA platform. This means that ISPs receiving funds can start testing immediately without the burdensome set-up costs and challenges of running a measurement platform.

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