Latency on FTTC products - ADSL24\BT\SKY

Looking to go from my rock steady BEthere ADSL to a FTTC product. The BE connection is a solid 18ms.

Any comments on how ADSL24 or SKY or BT products compare with regard to latency\packet loss.

6ms on Sky FTTC

15ms to multiplay.co.uk here. BT FTTC.

1800meter D-side line.

200miles from London.

Around 5 - 9ms with Sky fibre.

28ms to bbc.co.uk on infinity here. 8 extra for interleaving, 10 extra for route Winchester, Sheffield, London.

Best to tell us where you want latency for.

C:\Users\Bob>ping bbc.co.uk

Pinging bbc.co.uk [212.58.241.131] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 212.58.241.131: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=244
Reply from 212.58.241.131: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=244
Reply from 212.58.241.131: bytes=32 time=13ms TTL=244
Reply from 212.58.241.131: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=244

Ping statistics for 212.58.241.131:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 13ms, Maximum = 15ms, Average = 14ms

C:\Users\Bob>ping multiplay.co.uk

Pinging multiplay.co.uk [85.236.96.68] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 85.236.96.68: bytes=32 time=13ms TTL=57
Reply from 85.236.96.68: bytes=32 time=13ms TTL=57
Reply from 85.236.96.68: bytes=32 time=13ms TTL=57
Reply from 85.236.96.68: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=57

Ping statistics for 85.236.96.68:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 13ms, Maximum = 14ms, Average = 13ms

VDSL2 as a technology is pretty good latency wise - with fastpath on it's about a 5ms first hop, the same as Be. Unfortunately you can't control fastpath on VDSL2 like you can with Be so there's always a risk you'll get interleaved and can't do anything about it.

Additionally BT sometimes has funny routing, those in southwest London and generally west of London seem to get routed via Sheffield, meaning 20ms to London servers instead of say, 5-7ms. If I were you, I'd give Sky a shot - but it depends a bit on how much you care about this sort of stuff.

In reply to a post by drummerjohn:

Looking to go from my rock steady BEthere ADSL to a FTTC product. The BE connection is a solid 18ms.

Any comments on how ADSL24 or SKY or BT products compare with regard to latency\packet loss.

Or there's IDNet

http://speedtest.net/result/2269721249.png

A bit more expensive though.

Pinging newswww.bbc.net.uk [212.58.244.58] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 212.58.244.58: bytes=32 time=11ms TTL=56
Reply from 212.58.244.58: bytes=32 time=11ms TTL=56
Reply from 212.58.244.58: bytes=32 time=11ms TTL=56
Reply from 212.58.244.58: bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=56

Ping statistics for 212.58.244.58:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 11ms, Maximum = 12ms, Average = 11ms

Edited by Andrue (Sun 28-Oct-12 08:36:10)

Location counts.

My latency on Plusnet is identical to my previous latency on IDNet.

Thanks guys. I ask as I play online gaming. The 18ms I quoted was to bbc.co.uk

I live in Southampton

I am more interested in the latency being constant ie maybe always 25ms or 30ms as opposed to my VM 30Mb connection varying from 13ms one second to 100+ms the next. Makes online gaming much harder.

Edited by drummerjohn (Sun 28-Oct-12 08:57:04)