Cisco has released a free application for both the BlackBerry Storm and the iPhone / iPod Touch -named Global Internet Speed Test (GIST) that, as the its name implies, allows you to test the speed of your devices network connection.

Cisco GIST Testing Methodology

The test is performed by downloading a known quantity of data from a single web server. The size of the data is different for the different types of network connections, so that the test will take roughly the same amount of time from the user’s perspective. For a cellular network test, 256KB are downloaded. For wireless, 512 KB are downloaded. A single download is performed, timed in milliseconds, and results are reported in terms of 1000 bits per second (kbps). Test results might be impacted by network routing, traffic, congestion and the responsiveness of our server. Results might also vary by the user’s geographical location.

GIST keeps track of your high speed, average speed, and low speed and compares them to the world, high, average, and low.   It also graphs each of the tests you run and even tells you how many times the test has been run globally.

This is a cool little utility.  I would just like to see it offered as an OTA download and made avaiable for all BlackBerry devices, not just the Storm.

You can donload GIST here…