KITCHENER — The City of Kitchener is turning to crowdsourcing to measure local Internet performance.

The city has launched a six-month pilot that allows residents and businesses in Kitchener to test the speed and quality of their Internet connections. It hopes the effort will help the city map out what areas have adequate Internet service, and which areas may be lagging, and push harder for better service in areas that are weak.

"The more people we get to participate, the better the information we'll gather," said Dan Murray, Kitchener's director of technology services.

Kitchener is one of three communities that is working with the Canadian Internet Registration Authority to better understand local Internet access, since speed and quality are essential for a "smart" community that wants to attract tech-savvy talent and businesses.

"Kitchener needs to make sure we have the proper communications infrastructure to remain globally competitive," Murray said. "We want to make sure we have the infrastructure that's required to support the tech industry, and the individuals who live and work here."

"Anybody who runs this test is contributing their data, so we can start to get a sense of what is the state of Internet connectivity in the city," he said. The test, which takes a few seconds, won't disclose private information, since it only uses postal codes to locate the data.

Having a clear picture of where Internet service is strong — and where it needs improvement — is crucial to Kitchener's digital strategy, which aims to improve Internet access across the city, and use technology to improve the delivery of city services.

The city is asking residents to test their home or business connection using an Internet browser, on any device, by going to performance.cira.ca/Kitchener.

The analysis will also provide information about Internet performance in your specific neighbourhood. Kitchener paid an extra $1,500 to customize the pilot program so that it breaks down Internet access in each of the city's 10 wards, and in about 60 neighbourhoods and business parks across the city.

As of Tuesday morning, more than 2,100 people had run tests in Kitchener. The data so far shows that Ward 3, the area roughly south of the Conestoga Parkway and between Homer Watson Boulevard and Highway 8, has the best Internet connectivity, with an average download speed of almost 54 megabytes per second. Ward 1, in the city's northwest, had the poorest performance, with an average speed of 18 megabytes per second.