Between 2001 and 2003, the "loss quality" of the global Internet improved dramatically--and it continues to improve, according to researchers at Stanford University. In 2001, only 19 percent of the world's connected population lived in countries where packet loss was good or acceptable. By 2005, that number had risen to 74 percent. In the U.S., available bandwidth of up to 10Gbit/sec. over the Internet backbone is also increasing end to end as broadband continues to roll out to businesses and residences. "Pretty much all applications are going to work on the backbone," says Les Cottrell, chairman of the SCIC Monitoring Working Group at Stanford. But today, end-to-end performance still depends on the tail circuit.

MAXIMUM PACKET LOSS FOR ACCEPTABLE PERFORMANCE, BY APPLICATION

E-mail -- 10 percent

FTP -- 5 percent-10 percent

Videoconferencing -- 4 percent-6 percent