What apps need
The figures HopSense holds each use to, and where each one comes from. A use is only as good as its worst row.
Delay is the round trip at its 95th percentile: the slow end, which is what a call or a game feels. A speed test’s ping is a typical round trip on an idle line, so it reads lower.
Will a video call hold while the rest of the house is online?
| Measure | Fine | Fails |
|---|---|---|
| Delay when the line is busy | within60 msMicrosoft | at or past400 msJudgement · ITU-T G.114, ITU-T Y.1541 |
| Packet loss when the line is busy | within0.5 %Microsoft | at or past3 %ITU-T G.1010 |
No speed row: a call needs a few megabits, less than one HD stream, and a line too slow for it shows as delay and loss anyway.
Will a fast-reaction game be playable while the rest of the house is online?
| Measure | Fine | Fails |
|---|---|---|
| Delay when the line is busy | within50 msClaypool & Claypool | at or past150 msClaypool & Claypool |
| Packet loss when the line is busy | within0.1 %ITU-T Y.1541 | at or past2 %Judgement · ITU-T G.1010 |
Delay here is to a public internet anchor, not the game’s own server, so it is the least a game will see.
Do pages open quickly on this line at rest?
| Measure | Fine | Fails |
|---|---|---|
| Delay on a quiet line | within100 msNielsen · derived | at or past400 msITU-T G.1010, Core Web Vitals · derived |
| Packet loss on a quiet line | within1 %TRAI | at or past5 %Mathis et al. · derived |
A page takes about ten round trips before it is usable: at 100 ms that is 1 s, at 400 ms it is 4 s.
Will a stream hold its quality without buffering?
| Measure | Fine | Fails |
|---|---|---|
| Download | at least25 MbpsNetflix, YouTube · derived | at or below5 MbpsNetflix, YouTube |
| Packet loss when the line is busy | within1 %ITU-T G.1010 | at or past5 %Cisco |
The whole line’s download: 25 Mbps carries a 4K stream with room to spare, or four or five HD ones.
Derived: worked out from the source. Judgement: no source says where the use stops working, so the figure is placed between the ones named.
Round trip optimal under 60 ms, packet loss under 0.5 %.
Under 150 ms one way, delay goes unnoticed in most conversation; 400 ms is the planning limit.
Real-time traffic loses at most one packet in a thousand, and the network has 100 ms of a call’s 150 ms one way.
Voice under 3 % loss, video under 1 %; a web page acceptable within 4 s.
In fast games, play gets markedly worse above 50 ms and again above 150 ms.
Within 1 s, a wait does not interrupt the flow of thought.
A page whose main content takes over 4 s to appear is poor.
Wireline broadband may drop at most 1 % of packets.
A TCP download’s speed falls with the square root of its loss rate.
5 Mbps for 1080p, 15 Mbps for 4K.
5 Mbps for 1080p, 20 Mbps for 4K.
Streaming video loses no more than 5 % of packets.