real time Vs delayed data

[bullandbear@xxxxxxxxx]

Hello,

I have noticed when watching real time quotes from data vendors such as Reuters,DBC,Futuresource that say that they all have agreements with data protocols from exchanges worldwide.Now if all of these data companies have agreements with the same exchanges and they all say that they are real time but they are not really in real time sometime data vendors are seconds faster than others and some are seconds slower they all are not simutaneously accurate in real time. So this brings me to the question who is real time and who is delayed?

In my opinion if it is 1 second late then it is delayed or even historical,Some would say this depends if the data is being downloaded from the internet Vs. Dish, that computer speed, memory and hard drives or if it connected to a socket or some other kind of link play an important role in the answer.

I am sure that traders have their favorites but ignoring that fact i will pose the question anyway.

Which data vendor has the authentic real time data or close to it?

Doesn't the data vendors show the specifications of their infrastructure that will tell me Hey buddy we are not real time just 3 seconds off.

Thanks for your responses

Bryant Moss