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Fast & Furious Pt 1: What is Latency Really?

Latency | MyRepublic

As a gamer you’ve probably heard of latency, or related terms such as “ping” or “lag”. They’re not the same thing, although they are closely related. You probably know that latency is important and it’s something to do with the speed of your internet connection. But what exactly is latency and how does it affect your gaming?

Bandwidth rate - Latency | MyRepublic

Okay, so those numbers are bad… but how bad?

Latency vs. bandwidth

If you have a 1Gbps broadband plan, surely your latency problems are solved right? Well, yes and no. The “1Gbps” refers to your plan’s maximum download speed or bandwidth and while it can affect latency, it’s not the same thing.

Latency refers to the amount of time it takes for a packet of data to be sent to its destination and get back to you. It’s measured in milliseconds – that’s 1 thousandth of a second – abbreviated “ms”. In other words, 1ms is 0.001s. That’s really really fast.

Data speed - Latency | MyRepublic

Latency is about how much time it takes to move little bits of data

For example, on the MyRepublic GAMER network, the network latency for Singapore-hosted games like PUBG and Fortnite servers is somewhere between 1.2ms and 1.4ms. That’s so fast humans can’t notice the difference.

Naturally, the further away the game server is located from you, the longer the time it takes for a packet of data to get there and back. On the MyRepublic GAMER network, the latency for a Fortnite server in Australia for instance — not too far from Singapore in terms of a holiday destination but definitely further if you’re talking about distance — is between 170ms and 180ms.

Bandwidth on the other hand, like 1Gbps or 1,000Mbps, refers to your maximum data transfer capacity. “Mbps” here referring to megabits per second. In other words, bandwidth refers to how much data can be transferred in 1 second.

Let’s use a hot dog eating contest as an analogy. Here, latency would be similar to how fast you could eat one hot dog: we want to see how fast you can transfer that one item from your plate to your belly. Perhaps you could swallow one in 10 seconds or less? Every little bit of time counts!

By contrast, bandwidth would refer to the maximum number of hot dogs you could eat in one hour. It doesn’t measure how fast you are at wolfing down each hot dog but your maximum eating capacity.

Numerous hotdogs - Latency | MyRepublic

Mmmmmm… hot dogs…

As you can see, while both concepts point towards speed, latency is a measurement of the time taken to do the action while bandwidth has to do with the maximum amount of much data that can be moved over a standard unit of time e.g. one second.

That said, both of these things are important to making sure your online experience is a good one.

Bandwidth, latency and gaming

When we talk about “super-fast” internet plans we usually refer to the plan’s bandwidth. For example, the high bandwidth of a 1Gbps broadband plan would allow you to stream video and load images much faster than a 300Mbps plan – great for downloading new games or patching existing games in your Steam library!

But upgrading from a 500Mbps plan to a 1Gbps doesn’t mean your latency is going to be twice as good, and it doesn’t necessarily mean your latency will improve significantly. That said, having insufficient bandwidth can reduce your latency.

As another analogy, imagine your bandwidth as the size of your internet pipe. The bigger the pipe, the bigger the bandwidth as more data can go through it at once. Latency in this particular analogy would be how much time it’d take a drop of water to travel through the pipe.

If your pipe is too small and you’re trying to shoot some drops of water through very quickly while there’s a lot of other water coming through (from downloads and streaming and other applications) there’ll be a high chance of congestion. Network congestion is a very real thing that affects your latency.

Bandwidth - Latency | MyRepublic

Imagine bandwidth as the size of your internet pipe: latency would be how fast the tiny bits of data can flow through.

What latency is good?

Now that you know what latency is, it should be obvious latency is better the closer it gets to 0ms i.e. the smaller the value the better.

When it comes to gaming, latency usually refers to how long it takes for your input (e.g. you pushing a button or clicking your mouse) to be registered by the game server and then back to your computer. Latency that is too high causes a noticeable and disruptive delay: the much dreaded experience we know as lag.

How low should your latency be? It really depends on what game you’re playing and where that game’s server is located.

Game menu - Latency | MyRepublic

For a Singapore gamer connecting to a US server, these would be great numbers

You can expect game servers located in the same city as you to have latency values of under 5ms. Remember that ms refers to milliseconds, so 5ms would be equal to 0.005 seconds. That’s virtually instantaneous.

Unfortunately there isn’t a dedicated a game server in every city in the world. The time taken for your byte of game data to travel overseas can be much much longer.

If you’re a gamer in Singapore connecting to a game server in the US, you can expect the numbers to be at least 150ms simply from the distance alone. While bytes of data can travel through fibre optic cables really quickly – about 200,000km per second – consider that the straight distance between Singapore and the Los Angeles is already about 14,112km.

And that doesn’t even include the various routers and number of routes the byte of data has to go through. When it comes to latency every split second counts.

Undersea cable - Latency | MyRepublic

Imagine the thousands of kilometres of undersea cables your byte of data has to travel through!

Even the location of the game server within a country can make a difference. This is especially true for large countries like the United States. For example, for gamers in Singapore, game servers on the US West Coast are physically closer than the East Coast. This allows some connections to shave off a bit of latency.

It’s no surprise that many gamers hope that their games have dedicated servers located closer to where they are. An “Oceanic” game server, such as one located in Australia, will likely provide better latency to Singapore gamers. This is better than a US-based server simply due to the shorter distance the data has to travel.

In the next part of our latency series, we’ll talk about simple ways we can check our latency and the various ways we might be able to improve our latency.

Privacy Policy

At MyRepublic, we are committed to maintain the security and confidentiality of the personal information held by us. This Privacy Policy (“Policy”) describes how we look after the personal information we obtain or you provide us with when you use our Website ([insert Card Con URL]), attend Card Con, or correspond with us relating to Card Con.

1. Your Privacy

We will take reasonable care to ensure that your personal information is accurate, complete, up-to-date and stored in a secure environment, protected from unauthorised access, modification, loss or disclosure. 

2. Personal Information

a. “Personal Information” refers to your personal particulars obtained by us in the course of our dealings with you. Personal Information collected may include personal contact details, interests, comments and feedback, and communication preferences.

b. We may use “cookies” or other similar tracking technologies (“Cookies”), when you visit our Sites or use our products and services to distinguish you from other users. Through Cookies, it might also include how you use our Website to help us develop and improve our website, including details of your domain name and Internet Protocol (IP) address, operating system, browser version, cookie details, how long you stayed on a page, the route you took to navigate through the pages and the website that you visited prior to accessing our site.

c. We collect your personal information through the following means: 

– From you directly:
1. Data submitted through our web forms (including registration forms)
2. Data collected onsite during our exhibition(s), this includes personal information and activities
3. Data collected by  employees when in direct communication with persons / organisations

– By automated technologies / services, including:
1. Data gathered from services which use IP address to determine where the visitors to our site originate from
2. Information from actions made by an individual in response to direct marketing campaigns, including when an individual opens any emails or follows any links originating from our email communications
3. Information related to website navigation and usage
4. Data used to provide personalised marketing / user experiences while visiting our sites

– From third party sources, including:
1. Personal information or supplementary information from partners who we engage with in joint marketing efforts
2. Public data sources used to supplement or validate our existing datasets
3. Data services / suppliers used to obtain or supplement our existing datasets
4. Data which has been acquired as part of an acquisition or merger

3. How we use Your Personal Information

a. We may collect and use your Personal Information to:
1. Provide you with information and updates relating to Card Con.
2. Respond to you in relation to any enquiries you may have
3. Produce analytics relating to your usage of our products and response to our marketing activities
4. Improving our services and user experience
And where you have opted-in:
5. Deliver targeted promotional messaging relating to our services

c. MyRepublic will not use your Personal Information for any purpose not permitted by law or beyond the stated purpose you have consented to.

d. The Card Con Website contains links to other sites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of other websites. 

4. Who do we share your Personal Information to

a. Apart from our staff, we may share your personal information with third parties to perform obligations or carry out services to us, related to the provision our products or services to you. Those entities may include:
(i) companies related to us;
(ii) our business partners, marketing partners and authorised service providers;
(iii) our professional advisors; and
(iv) our suppliers.

b. We are required to disclose your Personal Information to the parties described above so that they may carry out their obligations to us, and to you. Our disclosure of your Personal Information may, at times, be subject to their privacy policies. To every extent possible, we require these parties to act consistently with the personal information protections we have put in place.

c. We also reserve the right to disclose your Personal Information to law enforcement agencies, government regulators and our professional advisers, to the extent necessary as required by appliable laws.

d. If you post information on any of our Websites or social media platforms, any information on your post, such as your user name, may be seen by other visitors. 

5. How long do we retain your Personal Information

We retain your Personal Information for as long as it is necessary to fulfil the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy, for legal or business purposes of MyRepublic, or as required or allowed by law. We will cease to retain such Personal Data when it is no longer required for the foregoing purposes. 

6. How you can access and update your Personal Information

a. You must ensure your listed customer details are current, complete and accurate. You may correct or update your customer details by contacting our Customer Support.

b. If you require access or a copy of your Personal Information within our possession, please contact us according to Clause 11 and we will assess your request. In some cases, we may impose a reasonable charge for making copies of Personal Information available to you. If so, we will advise you of the charge prior to making the information available to you. 

7. Withdrawing your Consent

a. You may request to withdraw your consent by contacting us according to Clause 11. Your request for withdrawal of consent will take effect within 30 days upon receipt of your request. Please note that use of your personal data may be essential for us to provide the product or service that you subscribed. Therefore, your withdrawal of consent may impair our ability to continue providing the product or service to you. Your withdrawal of consent does not affect our right to continue to collect, use and disclose personal data where permitted or required under applicable laws.

b. If you wish to withdraw your consent to receive marketing messages about our exclusive offers from us or our business partners, please contact our Customer Support or unsubscribe from our newsletter. Your request will be processed within 30 days. Non-marketing messages including product and service updates and notices will not be affected by your consent withdrawal. 

8. Protecting Your Personal Data

We take reasonable physical, technical and administrative steps to help prevent loss, misuse, unauthorised access, disclosure or modification of Personal Information. However, please understand that the transmission of data over the Internet or any other public network may be subject to loss, interception and misuse. We do not represent, warrant or undertake that your Personal Information transmitted through online means will remain secure, and disclaim all liability arising from such transmission. 

9. Overseas Transfers

We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your personal information is treated securely and in accordance with this Policy and the data protection legislation when it is processed in, or otherwise accessed from, a location outside Singapore. In order to ensure the highest level of protection. MyRepublic abides by PDPA data standards. 

10. Cookies

a. Cookies helps us to provide you with a better customer experience, when browsing our Sites. Cookies are small data files and may contain unique identifiers stored on your device by an online site. When you use our Site, we may collect standard information that is sent from your browser to our Website, including technical and statistical information.

b. You can usually choose to set your browser settings to manage Cookies. If you choose to remove or reject Cookies, you may not be able to access all or parts of our Website or services. 

11. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may review, amend or update this Privacy Policy from time to time without prior written notice. Updates to the Privacy Policy will be published on this page. We recommend that your review this page periodically for updates. Your continuous use of our Websites, products and services, will be deemed acceptance of any changes or additions to this Privacy Policy. 

12. Contacting Us

If you have any query or feedback regarding this Privacy Policy, you may contact our Data Protection Officer at: [email protected].

Last updated 26 March 2025 

Card Con – Visitor Terms and Conditions

By registering for Card Con, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to these Terms and Conditions.

1. Introduction

1.1 These Terms and Conditions (“Terms“) govern the registration and participation of attendees (“Attendees“) in Card Con by MyRepublic (“Card Con“), organised by MyRepublic (“Organiser“).

1.2 By registering for Card Con, Participants agree to comply with these Terms and the Card Con Privacy Policy.

2. Registration

2.1 Registration for Card Conis free of charge.

2.2 Attendeesmust provide accurate and complete information during the online registrationon the Card Con website at https://myrepublic.net/sg/card-con/ (“Website”) and must present their QR code upon registration at Card Con.

2.3 MyRepublic reserves the right to refuse or revoke anAttendee’sregistration at its sole discretion.

3. Event Conduct

3.1 Attendeesshall conduct themselves respectfully and follow all rules set by the Organiser.

3.2 Any disruptive, illegal, or inappropriate behaviour, including but not limited to harassment, cheating or other misconduct, may result in immediate removal from the Event.

3.3 Attendeesmust adhere to all venue rules and regulations.

4. Intellectual Property

4.1 Attendeesshall not infringe on any third-party intellectual property rights during Card Con.

4.2 Unauthorised reproduction, distribution, or possession of copyrighted or trademarked materials is strictly prohibited.

4.3 The Organiser may take appropriate action against any Attendeefound violating intellectual property laws, including but not limited to removal from Card Con.

4.4 The Organiser disclaims all liability to the Attendees and any third parties for the infringement of laws, regulations, intellectual property rights, and venue requirements by the exhibitors, vendors and Attendees.

5. Liability Disclaimer

5.1 Subject to applicable law, the Organiser, the venue, the vendor,and the exhibitors disclaim all liability for any injury, damage or loss of any kind, including but not limited to personal injury, loss, or damage to property suffered by Attendeesduring the Event, even if it is caused by the negligence, omission, or fault of the Organiser, its employees, officers, agents, or sub-contractors in connection with the Website, or Card Con.

5.2 The Organiser shall not be responsible for any disputes, damages, or losses arising from transactions or interactions between Attendees, or between Attendees and the exhibitors at Card Con.

5.3 Attendeesattend Card Con at their own risk and are responsible for their own personal belongings.

6. Photography and Media Release

6.1 The Organiser may take photographs, videos, or other recordings during Card Confor promotional purposes.

6.2 By attending Card Con, Attendeesconsent to the use of their likeness in such media without compensation.

7. Tournament & Prize Terms (If Applicable)

7.1 Tournament participants must follow official tournament rules and regulations.

7.2 Prizes are non-transferable, and non-exchangeable.

7.3 Any disputes will be resolved by the Organiser or its appointed vendors, and their decision will be final.

8. Amendments and Cancellation

8.1 The Organiser reserves the right to amend these Terms at any time without prior notice.

8.2 The Organiser may cancel, postpone, or modify Card Conat its sole discretion without liability.

9. Governing Law

9.1 These Terms shall be governed and construed in accordance with the laws of Singapore.

9.2 Any disputes arising from or related to these Terms shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Singapore.