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A simpler, and less intrusive measure of loss, is a simple short LCP echo. LCP echoes are a normal part of most Internet links, and A&A do them every second and record the loss for every line. This is only a few bytes, and so packet loss that is a fraction of a percentage could mean several percent at full packet sizes. This is why it is so important to take even very low levels of LCP echo loss seriously.
This is why packet loss needs to be a clear metric of quality and faults and why companies like BT need documented packet loss measures that are considered a fault. For some inexplicable reason such a simple metric is not part of any service level guarantee, and not considered a "fault" by BT!
Oddly, buying transit, which means sending and receiving packets from thousands of places all around the world (not just exchanges in the UK) and even laying cables under the ocean, one can get a service level guarantee of ZERO packet loss ever. This shows how seriously transit providers take such things. They even guarantee latency (the time taken to transfer packets). Even more oddly, such services are typically around a 50th of the cost of BTs connectivity to exchanges around the UK where no service level guarantee exists for packet loss. It is a strange world we live in some times isn't it?
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