When it comes to looking at the speeds of a person’s network, most people probably only think about the download speeds, or the time it takes for one to upload their most recent video to YouTube or the latest batch of photos to Facebook. Less likely, are people to think about the latency of the network. In a recent report from OpenSignal who partnered up with Fierce Wireless, the details state that out of all four major carriers here in the U.S., Verizon Wireless had a slightly higher latency with their LTE network. This could all change for the following quarters as Verizon continues to improve and advance their network technology.
If you’re unfamiliar with what the latency of a network is, that’s OK. It isn’t very complex, it just isn’t as widely discussed by the average user. Latency is the time it takes for one’s network to receive then send information to the device requesting data from the network. So for example, when you request a search about the best pizza spots in downtown LA, and you’re device is on Verizon Wireless, the latency of Verizon’s network would be how long it takes for Verizon’s network servers to receive those data packets, then send the packets of data about the best pizza spots back to your device.
As pointed out by Fierce Wireless, the slightly higher latency with Verizon’s LTE network is more than likely not going to be noticeable by customers as the latency difference was that small. It should also be noted that the latency shouldn’t be confused with the actual network speeds that people are receiving, which is what results in the length of time it takes for your device to load webpages, download apps and so on. When compared to the LTE latency of T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T, Verizon’s latency was recorded at 85.08 ms, which isn’t that much more than the second highest, which is T-Mobile’s at 76.72 ms. Sprint’s latency for the LTE network was recorded at 75.72 ms, while AT&T’s LTE network was recorded as having the lowest latency at 75.29 ms. All of this data is visualized in the chart below.