What is a common cause of increased latency in internet service?

Increased latency in internet service is often attributed to network congestion or routing issues. Latency refers to the time it takes for data to travel from its source to its destination. When there is congestion on a network—due to too many users trying to access the same bandwidth, for example—data packets can experience delays, causing increased latency. Similarly, routing issues, such as suboptimal path selection or complications in the routing infrastructure, can also lead to prolonged travel times for data packets, thus increasing latency.

While excessive use of video streaming can contribute to overall bandwidth consumption, it is the congestion that it causes—along with other factors—that leads to increased latency. Hardware failures can certainly result in service interruptions or degraded performance, but they are not a predominant cause of latency in a broader sense. Incorrect installation of service may cause issues like slow speeds or disconnections but does not inherently relate to increased latency as a systematic network issue. Understanding these dynamics helps in diagnosing internet service problems more effectively.