Cheat Sheet: What is Broadband Latency?
What is broadband network latency?
Latency – also known as ping, lag or load times – refers to the period of time it takes data to transmit over a network. Basically, it's how long it takes for an application to respond to your request. It is measured in milliseconds (ms).
Why is low latency important?
- Overall user experience: High latency can lead to frustrating delays and interruptions, impacting your overall online experience.
- Real-time applications: Low latency is crucial for keeping activities that require real-time communication, such as online gaming and video conferencing, running smoothly with no lag or interruptions.
- Stable connection: low latency means a more consistent internet connection, with less chance of dropping out in the middle of an important video call or online gaming session.
What is a good broadband latency?
The lower your latency, the better, but what you consider good latency will depend on your online activities.
For things like video calling and fast-paced games, you want a quick response and low latency. Latency issues are less likely to affect you for low-bandwidth tasks, like sending emails.
For home-use, 20-40 milliseconds (ms) is considered a superfast latency speed. Anything quicker than this is rare.
Optimal latency rates for different tasks include:
- 4ms: This is practically the speed of light latency, as low as you can go. You'll see it in high-end monitors used by online gamers as well as network equipment for professional use.
- 20ms: This speed of internet latency is still super fast, and ideal for everyday tasks like streaming movies and using social media. It's also a good speed for gaming at home.
- 100ms: This is starting to get into slower speed territory, but is still fine for general internet use like browsing websites and social media.
- 200ms: This is a slow latency speed. You'll experience lots of lagging and delays while online, which can be very frustrating!
How to check broadband latency
You can do a quick check of your latency or ping by using an online speed test like speed.cloudflare.com or https://www.speedtest.net/.
- Open the speed test website
- Click 'start' or 'go' to begin the test
- Check the figure for latency or ping
- Anything between 20ms to 40ms is good: anything less is incredible, and anything more might indicate connection issues or a slow broadband connection.
What has an impact on latency?
- Close unnecessary applications: Reduce network congestion by closing applications that are not in use.
- Use a wired connection: An ethernet connection will generally be more stable and have lower latency than a wireless connection.
- Choose a server closer to your location: If you have control over the gaming server you are connecting to, try selecting one that is closer to where you are.
- Upgrade your broadband connection: A faster and more reliable broadband connection can help reduce latency.
Experience a low latency connection with full fibre broadband.
A fibre connection is likely to have less latency when compared to standard broadband, as fibre optic cables move data faster and more reliably than copper cables. We have a range fast and reliable full fibre broadband packages with low latency and high internet speed to keep you connected.