Communication and Internet service providers (ISPs) maintain the networks and connectivity that underpin our everyday experiences—from streaming our favorite shows, to online gaming with friends, to videoconferencing with coworkers. But the dynamic nature of this infrastructure can make it difficult to spot issues when they occur, putting users’ experience at risk.
Traditional reactive troubleshooting methods often fall short, leading to unresolved issues, increased operational costs, and customer dissatisfaction. This challenge is further compounded by a surge in support calls and costs, which put immense pressure on care agents who are already grappling with high turnover rates and burnout. Moreover, outdated in-house processes that evolve sluggishly often result in overly scripted responses and frustrating customer interactions.
As more people work from home, the demand for reliable Internet performance is growing. To effectively assure customer experiences and reduce support costs, service providers need accurate, real-time insights into both in-home and last-mile network performance. This approach allows them to swiftly identify and resolve problems, helping to ensure a reliable broadband service that meets the changing needs and preferences of millions, and it allows them to compete on subscriber experience, not just speed.
For over ten years, service providers have leveraged the ThousandEyes platform for enhanced visibility into their networks and those they rely on, giving them the ability to better understand how off-network services and third-party providers are impacting their customers’ experience of applications delivered over their networks. Now, with the introduction and general availability of ThousandEyes Connected Devices, service providers will be able to gain real-time last-mile performance insights to help reduce churn, decrease support calls, and ensure uninterrupted service, enhancing customer satisfaction.
ThousandEyes Connected Devices: Optimize Broadband Services and Assure Subscriber Experiences
Powered by tens of millions of global vantage points and billions of daily measurements, ThousandEyes is redefining what it means to visualize a globally distributed network that includes both owned and unowned environments. With ThousandEyes, service providers can help minimize downtime and assure exceptional digital experiences.
ThousandEyes now offers a new vantage point into the last-mile home environment and mobile networks with ThousandEyes Connected Devices (formerly SamKnows), specifically designed to help broadband and Internet service providers harness new levels of performance intelligence to assure consistent subscriber experiences, improve customer satisfaction and lifetime value, meet regulatory requirements, and reduce churn.
With innovations like Cisco Real Speed and testing insights across fixed and mobile networks, Connected Devices empowers service providers to assure last-mile Wi-Fi, broadband, and mobile digital experiences, using intelligent insights and root-cause analysis to pinpoint areas to help improve connectivity and minimize mean time to identify (MTTI) performance issues.
Take Virgin Media O2, for instance. This leading U.K. telecommunications provider is transforming its competitive edge by using ThousandEyes Connected Devices to inform initiatives that go beyond ultra-fast speeds and enhance the customer experience with value-based services that drive dynamic support to customers, including proactive engagement to quickly mitigate issues before a service call is even placed.
ThousandEyes Connected Devices Use Cases
ThousandEyes empowers service providers across several key areas, from fault isolation to performance optimization and beyond. Here are some examples:
Use Case 1: Proactively Reducing Truck Rolls
When customers frequently encounter connectivity issues, such as significant speed drops or disconnections, they are more likely to contact support or require a technician visit (truck roll), which can ultimately lead to customer churn. These scenarios elevate costs for service providers and can sometimes result in customers having a negative lifetime value (LTV) and poor net promoter scores (NPS).
By leveraging ThousandEyes Connected Devices, service providers can proactively monitor and engage these customers before issues escalate. With features like the Cisco Real Speed mobile SDK, providers can integrate “Two-step Speed Tests” into their mobile apps, enabling customers to self-diagnose Wi-Fi issues and identify whether their issues are inside or outside their home—helping to reduce support calls and unnecessary truck rolls.
Use Case 2: Solving Suboptimal Performance
Speed tests don’t always tell the full story. A user in Lithuania reported frequent buffering on a popular global streaming service, despite paying for a 100Mbps broadband connection. Traditional speed tests showed high performance, but deeper investigation revealed that traffic to the streaming service was being routed inefficiently—sometimes traveling across continents before reaching the correct content delivery network (CDN). This unnecessary detour added over 90ms of latency, degrading streaming quality.
With ThousandEyes Connected Devices, ISPs can detect these hidden routing inefficiencies in real time, helping to ensure traffic is optimally routed for a seamless streaming experience. By proactively identifying and resolving such issues, providers can enhance user satisfaction and reduce customer complaints. ThousandEyes’ extensive tests of streaming, gaming, and media services allow service providers to better understand the real customer experience of the Internet.
Use Case 3: Accelerating Fault Resolution
A new customer calls their ISP, complaining about buffering while gaming as well as connection instability. Traditionally, this would be treated as a Wi-Fi or device issue, leading to a scripted troubleshooting process—rebooting devices, waiting for retraining, and delaying resolution. However, with ThousandEyes Connected Devices, care agents gain real-time visibility into network health, enabling faster and more accurate diagnostics.
Using Agent View, the care agent can quickly identify multiple disconnections starting on May 21, indicating a potential cable fault. With customer metadata, they can correlate or isolate root causes, such as CMTS issues impacting multiple homes. Instead of unnecessary troubleshooting, the issue can be escalated to Field Engineering, who can confirm a circuit-level problem. By leveraging macro-level analytics, engineers are able to pinpoint the fault location before dispatching a technician, significantly reducing MTTR and improving customer experience.
Learn More at Mobile World Congress
If you're interested in learning more about ThousandEyes Connected Devices, visit us at Mobile World Congress, March 3-6, 2025, or click here to learn more.