Rogers Communications has signed up to use an independent broadband testing company to measure data speeds in customers’ homes.

Rogers is working with SamKnows, which has performed data testing for international regulators including the Federal Communications Commission in the United States and Ofcom in the United Kingdom.

“With Internet usage exploding, speed is more important than ever to the customer experience,” said John Boynton, executive vice president and chief marketing officer at Rogers Communications. “We are committing to long-term in-home testing as an additional quality measure to ensure customers are getting world-leading Internet experiences. We encourage other ISPs to do the same.”

Rogers said it has invested more than $10 billion in network infrastructure. Working with SamKnows, Rogers will have the ability to measure actual customers’ data speeds on a consistent basis. The SamKnows platform is complementary to existing testing that Rogers conducts.

Using a custom hardware device called a Whitebox that plugs in to a customer’s existing Internet connection, SamKnows will measure Internet upload and download performance, as well as other key performance indicators such as latency.

Earlier this year, Rogers hired LeMay-Yates to conduct research to help give it a more accurate look at how Canada’s actual broadband speeds stacked up on a global scale relative to advertised speeds. The report found Canada ranked within the top 10 countries internationally for fastest Internet speeds delivered.

Also this year, Rogers agreed to phase out its Internet Traffic Management Policy, which was designed to manage peer-to-peer Internet upload traffic, after a ruling by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commissions. Rogers said the phase-out is on track to be completed by the end of this year.