SamKnows

SamKnows
Name	SamKnows
Industry	Telecommunications
Founded	2008
Founder	Sam Crawford
Headquarters	United Kingdom
Products	Measurement probes, broadband metrics, network analytics

SamKnows is a company that specializes in broadband performance measurement, network intelligence, and internet infrastructure analytics. It develops hardware and software for measuring home and operator networks, working with regulatory bodies, internet service providers, and research institutions to assess end-user quality of experience. The organisation collaborates with a wide range of public and private entities to inform policy, deployment, and consumer transparency.

History

Founded in 2008 during a period of rapid broadband expansion, the company emerged alongside debates involving Office of Communications (United Kingdom), European Commission, Federal Communications Commission, Ofcom, and other regulatory authorities. Early work intersected with initiatives from BBC technology projects, research at University of Cambridge, and standards discussions at Internet Engineering Task Force. Growth tracked global broadband rollouts tied to projects in United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Germany, France, India, Brazil, South Africa, Singapore, and Hong Kong. The company engaged with academic partners like Imperial College London, University College London, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, University of Oxford, Cornell University, Harvard University, and Princeton University on measurement research. It also interfaced with industry groups including Broadband Forum, GSMA, Internet Society, Telecommunications Industry Association, European Telecommunications Standards Institute, and World Bank digital projects. Historical milestones included collaborations with national initiatives such as National Broadband Network (Australia), Digital Economy Act 2010, and projects supported by UK Research and Innovation.

Products and Services

Offerings include consumer-facing hardware probes, operator-grade measurement appliances, and cloud-based analytics platforms used by entities such as British Telecommunications, Virgin Media, Comcast, AT&T, Verizon Communications, T-Mobile, Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom, Orange S.A., Telefónica, NTT, SK Telecom, Telstra, Rogers Communications, Bell Canada, China Telecom, KT Corporation, and HKT. The product suite supports performance metrics applied in contexts run by Ofcom, FCC, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, European Commission DG CONNECT, International Telecommunication Union, and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Services extend to measurement campaigns for content platforms like Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Web Services, Cloudflare, Akamai Technologies, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and Spotify, and enterprise customers including Cisco Systems, Juniper Networks, Arista Networks, Huawei, Nokia, Ericsson, Ciena, F5 Networks, VMware, Mellanox Technologies, and Broadcom. The company also offers reporting for consumer advocacy groups such as Which?, Consumer Reports, Citizens Advice, and Which?-aligned campaigns, and provides insights to financial investors like Barclays, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, BlackRock, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, and UBS for telecom sector analysis.

Technology and Methodology

Measurement technology spans dedicated home probes, software agents, and virtual appliances that execute active and passive tests modeled on methodologies used by Akami Technologies, RIPE NCC, APNIC, NORDUnet, JANET (UK), and academic measurement platforms like M-Lab. Techniques include latency, throughput, packet loss, jitter, DNS performance, and quality of experience testing for streaming and gaming services used by Electronic Arts, Activision Blizzard, Riot Games, Epic Games, Valve Corporation, and Nintendo. The firm’s approaches align with standards and protocols discussed at IETF, 3GPP, ITU-T, and ETSI. Measurement campaigns leverage backbone exchanges and caching points at LINX, AMS-IX, DE-CIX, and cloud interconnects with Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and content delivery networks like Fastly. Data processing pipelines use technologies familiar to Apache Hadoop, Apache Kafka, Elasticsearch, Apache Spark, and container orchestration from Kubernetes and Docker, integrating security practices advocated by National Institute of Standards and Technology, ENISA, and Center for Internet Security.

Data Privacy and Ethics

Privacy and ethics work involves compliance with legal frameworks such as General Data Protection Regulation, California Consumer Privacy Act, Digital Economy Act 2017, Regulation (EU) 2016/679, and guidance from Information Commissioner's Office. The company engages with ethics committees and academic review boards at institutions including University of Cambridge, Oxford Internet Institute, Harvard Kennedy School, Stanford Internet Observatory, and NGOs like Electronic Frontier Foundation, Privacy International, Open Rights Group, Access Now, and Center for Democracy & Technology to harmonize measurement needs with user consent and anonymization practices. It also participates in policy dialogues with Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Council of Europe, UNESCO, ITU, and national audit offices.

Industry Impact and Partnerships

Partnerships span regulatory agencies, network operators, content providers, and academic institutions: collaborations have included Ofcom, FCC, Ofgem, Ofwat, European Commission, Broadband Forum, BT Group, Virgin Media O2, Comcast Corporation, Sky Group, Deutsche Telekom AG, Orange S.A., Telia Company, Telstra Corporation, NBN Co, Cisco Systems, Akamai, Netcraft, Dynatrace, New Relic, Ookla, M-Lab, RIPE NCC, APNIC, ARCEP, ANATEL, BEREC, Ofcom Northern Ireland, Welsh Government, Scottish Government, United Nations Development Programme, and academic centers like University College London and University of Cambridge. The company’s data has influenced policymaking, consumer transparency reports, broadband investment decisions, and academic research published alongside venues such as IEEE, ACM SIGCOMM, SIGMETRICS, USENIX, IMC, TMA, and ICTD.

Awards and Recognition

The company and its staff have received recognition from industry and academic bodies including nominations and awards from European Broadband Awards, GSMA Global Mobile Awards, TechUK Awards, British Computing Society, IEEE Communications Society, Royal Academy of Engineering, Queen's Awards for Enterprise, Fast Company, Financial Times, The Economist, Wired, The Guardian, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, BBC News, Nominet Internet Awards, and research citations in journals like Nature Communications, IEEE Transactions on Networking, ACM Computing Surveys, and Communications of the ACM.

Category:Telecommunications companies