Speed isn’t everything. A 100 Mbps connection with high latency will feel worse for gaming and video calls than a 20 Mbps connection with low latency.
This guide explains what latency and jitter are, and what genuinely improves them.
What the numbers mean
- Latency (ping) is the round-trip delay, measured in milliseconds. Under 30 ms is excellent, under 60 ms is good, over 100 ms becomes noticeable in games and calls.
- Jitter is how much the latency varies. Low jitter keeps voice and video smooth. High jitter causes calls to break up even when the average latency looks fine.
- Packet loss is data that never arrives. Even 1–2% causes stuttering audio and rubber-banding in games. It is the most damaging of the three.
You can measure all of these with our speed test.
What causes high latency
| Cause | Typical effect | Fixable by you? |
|---|---|---|
| Wi-Fi instead of cable | Adds 5–30 ms and a lot of jitter | Yes — use a cable |
| Distance to the server | Adds tens or hundreds of ms | Choose a closer game server |
| Congestion in your house | Adds latency under load | Yes — manage usage |
| An overloaded router | Rising latency at peak times | Sometimes — restart, or replace ageing hardware |
| Line fault or interference | Latency spikes and packet loss | No — report it to us |
| Upstream network issue | Latency to some destinations only | No — report it to us |
The single biggest improvement: use a cable
For gaming consoles, desktop computers and any device used for serious video conferencing, an Ethernet cable is transformative. Wi-Fi introduces both latency and jitter by its nature, and no amount of tuning eliminates that entirely.
If running a cable across the room isn’t practical, at least make sure the device is on the 5 GHz band and close to the router.
Manage what else is running
- A large download or cloud backup will add latency to everything else, even if plenty of bandwidth remains.
- Schedule game and system updates overnight.
- Video calls are sensitive to jitter; ask others to pause streaming during an important call.
- If your router supports Quality of Service (QoS), prioritise gaming or voice traffic. Configure it carefully — a badly set QoS rule makes things worse.
Specifically for gaming
- Choose the closest server region. Most latency in online gaming is simple geography. A server in Europe will always feel worse than one in South Africa, regardless of your line.
- Use a cable. This is worth repeating.
- Close background applications on the gaming device, especially streaming and download clients.
- Don’t use a VPN for gaming unless you specifically need one — it adds latency by routing traffic further.
- Watch for packet loss rather than ping. Rubber-banding and teleporting players indicate loss, not high ping.
Specifically for video calls
- Upload speed matters as much as download — your video is going the other way.
- Jitter is what causes robotic audio and frozen video. A cable is the best remedy.
- Turn off video briefly if the call degrades; audio needs far less bandwidth and recovers first.
- Sit closer to the router, or move stationary equipment to cable to free up airspace.
When to report it
Report high latency to us if it’s present on a cabled device, is consistent rather than occasional, or comes with packet loss. Include latency and jitter figures with the times you measured them, and note whether the problem affects all destinations or only some.
If none of this resolves the problem, log a fault with our technical team and we’ll take it from there.