Question: How To Interpret Connection Speed Test Results?

Speed test results are shown in terms of certain parameters that give an indication of several measurements. Not all speed tests give you the same parameters in the results, but all of them gives the download and upload speed. Other factors are QoS, RTT and Maximum Pause, among others. Don't panick, I'm explaining all these below.

Answer:

The Upload and Download Speeds

Measured in kbps (kilobits per second) or mbps(megabits per second), these values represent the rate at which data/voice is downloaded to your PC or any other VoIP hardware - like when you listen- and uploaded from it to the Internet - like when you speak.

For good VoIP, a download speed of 100 kbps and an upload speed of 80 kbps are largely sufficient.

QoS (Quality of Service)

QoS is a big topic in itself, but in our context of bandwidth speed tests, QoS represents the ratio of the worst reading to the best one. It is in fact a measure of the level of consistency in download speed. In speed tests, it is represented as a percentage. The higher it is, the better to quality. For good VoIP, the QoS should be 80% or more.

RTT (Round Trip Time)

The RTT is the time taken for your machine to send a small packet during the test and receiving it back after it has made a round trip in the network path being tested. It is measured in milliseconds (ms). The less it is, the better is the connection. For VoIP, it is OK to have a RTT of less than 250 milliseconds.

Max Pause

This is the longest pause your test has recorded between data packets. For a good bandwidth, this should be a very small number, else, it would indicate that there could be problems of consistency in your connection. Any max pause below 100 is good for VoIP.