What is 1:1 contention ratio?

[Marty_Mcfly]

Hi everyone!
I am a bit confused when they say the contention ratio of a broadband connection is 20:1 or 50:1. What does that mean? If a single connection is shared by many users, will it not slow down the speed on the line drastically? This may often happen when the line is shared by businesses.

I also think about 1:1 contention ratio in a connection which is highly expensive. Is it possible for the ISP to offer such service?

Thanks.

[Mike]

Contention ratio tells you how many people share your line. If it is 50:1, it means there are 49 users along with you on the line.

Yes, a few packages come with 1:1 contention ratio, it is so expensive that it makes me wonder who on earth will be using such a premier pacakge.

I think 20:1 is decent contention ratio however the home broadband connections usually come with 50:1 ratio. Recently, all ISPs also do some kind of traffic shaping so that heavy users do not take away all the bandwidth.