It may sound like a complex technological term, but it is quite simple. The amount of people sharing the same internet connection (or bandwidth) as you, at the same time – is your Contention Ratio.

Most will compare contention ration to a highway, or busy road. When the roads are being used by many drivers, especially during peak hours, there is so much traffic that your journey slows down a great deal.

When the roads are quiet your journey is considerably faster. Just like the highways, the internet is a very busy place. If everyone is using the internet at the same time the connection can become overly congested and you will see your speeds drop, particularly during peak times. The lower the contention ratio, the higher your internet quality will be. If your contention ratio is 50:1 that means 50 people are using the same connection as you at any one time.

If the bandwidth of the shared line is around 100Mbps, you could receive around 35Mbps on average. However, if all 50 people are using the line at the same time, the bandwidth you receive could be as low as 2Mbps. The higher the contention ratio, the more likely you are to experience a speed drop in your connection.

At BitCo Telecoms, we offer real Business Class contention ratio within our Dedicated Business Fibre Packages. You get uncontended 1:1 Fibre Internet. This means that you are not sharing your line with any other business. This is your dedicated line.

Bringing you Uncapped, Uncontended, and Synchronous Business Fibre.

Sourced from: BitCo. View the original article here.