Contention?

Hello, Just wanted to ask something. I recall years ago that contention was an issue on the old datastream products, I read somewhere that contention is no longer an issue though, am I right in this, or please can someone tell me what the situation regarding contention currently is. Specifically I'm looking at a non-fibre exchange which has ADSL2 and ADSL max available.

Thank you for any advice

Contention is always a potential issue somewhere. Even a leased line dumps you on the open network eventually. Your typical 'broadband' connection is always contended right from the get go. It's not something that will ever go away. Being contended isn't itself a problem - the problem is if part of a network becomes over subscribed.

All that contention means is There isn't enough bandwidth available for everyone who might want to use the link if they all choose to use it at the same time. In reality everyone doesn't tend to use the same link fully at the same time. While you're downloading a web page, I'm reading a web page and vice versa. Even streaming media rarely uses the full capacity of a link all the time these days.

It's a question of management. Generally speaking the more expensive ISPs do a better job of managing their network but most aren't too bad these days anyway. A lot of services in life in general are contended. Hospitals, restaurants and roads are all contended. It's just a matter of good planning and management to avoid issues.

Edited by Andrue (Mon 28-Oct-13 07:32:48)

If you are thinking of the old 50:1 and 20:1 contention ratios, those went out of the window when ADSL Max was introduced. Otherwise, Andrue seems to have it covered.

The big ISPs now have huge amounts of capacity and offer true unlimited connections. The side effect of them all offering them is that no one ISP now gets swamped by the "whole internet downloaders" jumping in. They are spread around.

Talk Talk provide 100k or so per user, certainly well below 500k, so the contention is something like 24 to 120:1 max. It's their job to manage it to give you a reasonable experience.