What is latency and how do I test for it?

Latency is the amount of time it takes for a single bit of communication to travel from one device to another. In the terms of a phone conversation latency is measured as the amount of time it takes for a spoken word to be converted into digital form, sent to another participant in the conversation, converted from the digital form to a voice recording played to the other party.

Helix Telecom allows customers to test latency in 2 ways.

The first method is by dialing *43# from any Helix Telecom issued phone. You will be played a short description of the test followed by a tone or silence. Upon speaking your voice will be converted to a digital form and sent to the customer's Helix Telecom portal. The voice will be decrypted, re-recorded, sent back to your device, converted to a analog form and played back to you. This will allow you to measure the latency between your device and the Helix Telecom network.

The second method is by dialing 430# from any Helix Telecom issued phone. This test will allow you to test latency between your device and a random Helix Telecom underlying carrier. Please note there is no control over the carrier that will receive your call in much the same way you will have no control over what provide the person you are dialing uses.

Latency is measured in milliseconds or 1/1000th of a second. Here are some averages:

• average latency between a customer's device and Helix Telecom's portal: 100ms
• average latency between Helix Telecom portal and the receiving carrier: 90ms
• average latency between a mobile phone carrier receiving a call and a cell phone: 350ms-500ms

Here is a sample article from Computerworld documenting the issue you are describing:

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9147558/Here_comes_the_new_cell_phone_etiquette