Consumers lose 30% of broadband speed using home Wi-Fi : Epitiro

Wireless services, such as in-home or in-office Wi-Fi, are susceptible to significant drops in experienced connection speed, depending on signal strength. In that regard, Epitiro research suggests consumers can lose an average of 30 percent of their experiences downstream access speed, with increased latency of 10 percent to 20 percent, when using Wi-Fi connections in the home.

Basically, use of Wi-Fi reduces end user device "experienced speed" from about 7 Mbps to about 5 Mbps.

Consumers may find on-line game play, VoIP telephony and video streaming unsatisfactory when using Wi-Fi while downloading large files such as MP3s, videos and programs will take longer.

On the other hand, Epitiro also found that web page download times are virtually the same using Wi-Fi or wired connections, so quality of experience is not always directly related to speed. Web pages download times are less susceptible to changes in line speed.

In other words, real-time applications and services, including video, voice and gaming, are most susceptible to impairments related to poor signal strength and interference from other devices. That is one reason why quality of experience advocates generally advocate packet priorities for real-time services and applications. One way to cope with latency or congestion is to allow high-priority bits preference for immediate delivery.

Consumers lose 30% of broadband speed using home Wi-Fi : Epitiro