Independence First
At The Mobile Digital Observatory, we recognize that the telecommunications industry is rife with sponsored content, affiliate marketing loops, and skewed speed-test algorithms. We exist to provide an academic counterweight. We categorically refuse corporate sponsorship from any US telecom provider.
Methodological Integrity
Our published metrics are derived from raw, unfiltered endpoint tests. When we measure the IoT backhaul limits of a smart city grid in Denver, we publish the ping variance—no matter how poor the carrier's performance. Our methodology is fundamentally opposed to "cherry-picking" fast test locations.
Device Nuance
We acknowledge that hardware dictates speed as much as the tower connection. Therefore, our testing parameters strictly identify the modem chipset utilized (e.g., Snapdragon X75 vs Apple A17 baseband) during our load tests to ensure complete transparency for researchers comparing our data year-over-year.
Corrective Action
If our academic community identifies a flaw in our statistical models or data aggregation regarding a carrier's rural expansion, our editorial board will retroactively append a correction log directly to the original paper.