diff --git a/include/asterisk/_private.h b/include/asterisk/_private.h
index 215a561785..fe9aa2c041 100644
--- a/include/asterisk/_private.h
+++ b/include/asterisk/_private.h
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@ void ast_autoservice_init(void);	/*!< Provided by autoservice.c */
 int ast_http_init(void);		/*!< Provided by http.c */
 int ast_http_reload(void);		/*!< Provided by http.c */
 int ast_tps_init(void); 		/*!< Provided by taskprocessor.c */
+int ast_timing_init(void);		/*!< Provided by timing.c */
 
 /*!
  * \brief Reload asterisk modules.
diff --git a/main/asterisk.c b/main/asterisk.c
index 0474d63757..a5a111cf37 100644
--- a/main/asterisk.c
+++ b/main/asterisk.c
@@ -3306,6 +3306,11 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[])
 
 	ast_autoservice_init();
 
+	if (ast_timing_init()) {
+		printf("%s", term_quit());
+		exit(1);
+	}
+
 	if (load_modules(1)) {		/* Load modules, pre-load only */
 		printf("%s", term_quit());
 		exit(1);
diff --git a/main/timing.c b/main/timing.c
index a1801fa68c..e6b7c25c3f 100644
--- a/main/timing.c
+++ b/main/timing.c
@@ -27,8 +27,13 @@
 
 ASTERISK_FILE_VERSION(__FILE__, "$Revision$")
 
+#include "asterisk/_private.h"
+
 #include "asterisk/timing.h"
 #include "asterisk/lock.h"
+#include "asterisk/cli.h"
+#include "asterisk/utils.h"
+#include "asterisk/time.h"
 
 AST_RWLOCK_DEFINE_STATIC(lock);
 
@@ -192,3 +197,64 @@ enum ast_timing_event ast_timer_get_event(int handle)
 
 	return result;
 }
+
+static char *timing_test(struct ast_cli_entry *e, int cmd, struct ast_cli_args *a)
+{
+	int fd, count = 0;
+	struct timeval start, end;
+
+	switch (cmd) {
+	case CLI_INIT:
+		e->command = "timing test";
+		e->usage = "Usage: timing test\n";
+		return NULL;
+	case CLI_GENERATE:
+		return NULL;
+	}
+
+	ast_cli(a->fd, "Attempting to test a timer with 50 ticks per second ...\n");
+
+	if ((fd = ast_timer_open()) == -1) {
+		ast_cli(a->fd, "Failed to open timing fd\n");
+		return CLI_FAILURE;
+	}
+
+	start = ast_tvnow();
+
+	ast_timer_set_rate(fd, 50);
+
+	while (ast_tvdiff_ms((end = ast_tvnow()), start) < 1000) {
+		int res;
+		struct pollfd pfd = {
+			.fd = fd,
+			.events = POLLIN | POLLPRI,
+		};
+
+		res = poll(&pfd, 1, 100);
+
+		if (res == 1) {
+			count++;
+			ast_timer_ack(fd, 1);
+		} else if (!res) {
+			ast_cli(a->fd, "poll() timed out!  This is bad.\n");
+		} else if (errno != EAGAIN && errno != EINTR) {
+			ast_cli(a->fd, "poll() returned error: %s\n", strerror(errno));
+		}
+	}
+
+	ast_timer_close(fd);
+
+	ast_cli(a->fd, "It has been %d milliseconds, and we got %d timer ticks\n", 
+		ast_tvdiff_ms(end, start), count);
+
+	return CLI_SUCCESS;
+}
+
+static struct ast_cli_entry cli_timing[] = {
+	AST_CLI_DEFINE(timing_test, "Run a timing test"),
+};
+
+int ast_timing_init(void)
+{
+	return ast_cli_register_multiple(cli_timing, ARRAY_LEN(cli_timing));
+}