Speed (Mbps) tells you how much data your connection can carry. Ping and jitter tell you how quickly and how smoothly it arrives. For video calls and gaming, they matter more than raw speed.
Ping and latency
Latency is the time it takes data to travel from your device to a server and back. Ping is the test that measures it, and people use the words interchangeably. It’s measured in milliseconds (ms) — thousandths of a second.
| Ping | What it feels like |
|---|---|
| Under 20 ms | Excellent — typical of fibre to a local server. |
| 20–50 ms | Good — fine for calls and most games. |
| 50–100 ms | Noticeable in fast-paced games; calls are usually OK. |
| Over 100 ms | Laggy. Common on congested mobile networks or overseas servers. |
Distance matters. A server in Johannesburg might be 5–20 ms away on fibre; a server in Europe is typically 150 ms or more from South Africa because of the physical distance through undersea cables. That’s why game servers in South Africa make such a difference for local players.
Jitter
Jitter is how much your ping varies from moment to moment. A steady 40 ms is better than a ping that jumps between 10 ms and 120 ms. High jitter (above about 30 ms) causes robotic voices and frozen video on calls, and “rubber-banding” in games. Wi-Fi interference and busy connections are the usual causes.
Bufferbloat (lag under load)
Here’s a common story: your speed test looks great, but video calls fall apart whenever someone starts streaming or a phone backs up its photos. That’s bufferbloat — your router queues up too much data when the line is busy, so everything else waits in line.
Our speed test measures this as “ping under load”. If it’s more than 50–100 ms higher than your normal ping, you have bufferbloat. Fixes:
- Switch on QoS, Smart Queue or SQM in your router settings if it has them.
- Schedule big downloads, game updates and cloud backups for night-time.
- Ask your provider whether they offer a router with better traffic management.
Packet loss
Packet loss is data that never arrives and has to be resent. Even 1–2% causes stutters in calls and games. It’s usually caused by weak Wi-Fi, a faulty cable, an overloaded router, or a problem on the provider’s network. Testing on a network cable helps narrow it down.
What to do about high ping or jitter
- Use a network cable for gaming and important calls.
- Pause other heavy use on the network.
- Turn off VPNs — they often route traffic overseas.
- Restart the router.
- Choose local (South African) game servers where available.
- If ping is high even on a cable with nothing else running, log a fault with your test results.
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