Contention ratio question

Sconsey

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone knows how ISP's manage contention ratios?

Let's say Eircom and UTV both claim a 40:1 contention ratio, does that mean if I choose UTV I am more likely to get a better service since less people in my area use UTV versus Eircom, or is the 40:1 figure shared between all ISP's on that section of the network.

I'm not sure I'm making my question very clear, sorry....what i am thinking is this: I currently have UTV connection, they have an advertised contention ration of about 40:1, I doubt many of my neighbours use UTV. If I move to Eircom who advertise the same contention ratio, but it is far more likely that neighbours are also signed up to Eircom, am I more likely to suffer from sharing the connection with other users?

Thanks

dub45

Sconsey wrote:

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone knows how ISP's manage contention ratios?

Let's say Eircom and UTV both claim a 40:1 contention ratio, does that mean if I choose UTV I am more likely to get a better service since less people in my area use UTV versus Eircom, or is the 40:1 figure shared between all ISP's on that section of the network.

I'm not sure I'm making my question very clear, sorry....what i am thinking is this: I currently have UTV connection, they have an advertised contention ration of about 40:1, I doubt many of my neighbours use UTV. If I move to Eircom who advertise the same contention ratio, but it is far more likely that neighbours are also signed up to Eircom,
am I more likely to suffer from sharing the connection with other users?

Thanks

I am sure you will get lots of posts explaining the technical side of how the isps manage their bandwidth but the short answer to your question I think is No. For instance even though as you say Eircom have the most customers if you check boards over a long period you will find very few complaints about Eircom speeds. Eircom have to provide sufficient capacity for whatever numbers of customers they have.

UTV seem to be going through a good period at the moment why would you want to change away from them?

Sconsey

dub45 wrote:

UTV seem to be going through a good period at the moment why would you want to change away from them?

Thanks for the reply, why am I thinking about changing? well UTV are quite good but I recently noticed that Eircom are slightly cheaper (€2 per month) with a bigger download cap, they are offering free connection at the moment now aswell and free modem so I could go wireless.

Even thought it's only a small price difference I am keen to go with the cheapest offer....I think it helps to reward the people with the best offer, and helps to drive down prices accross the board.
If loads of UTV users started to leave for Eircom because they are €2 cheaper I'm sure UTV would drop thier price to compete

Diabolus

There are 2 different sets of cards in an exchange.
1 which takes 24 users. another which takes 48.
All customers on DSL are connected to these cards regardless of their provider.
The only thing that seperates the users is when they connect to the DSLAM.

Foxwood

Sconsey wrote:

Thanks for the reply, why am I thinking about changing? well UTV are quite good but I recently noticed that Eircom are slightly cheaper (€2 per month) with a bigger download cap, they are offering free connection at the moment now aswell and free modem so I could go wireless

I must be missing something - what packages are cheaper on eircom than on UTV?

I see 4 packages on UTV - €16.99, €22.99, €31.99 and €41.99 (real price, after introductory offers). The "same" 4 packages on eircom cost €19.99, €29.99, €39.99 and €54.99. The caps are higher on eircom, but if that's a concern, UTV offer an "unlimited" option for and additional €5.99 per month (except for the timed option, obviously) - even if you add that in, they're still cheaper than eircom.

Note that these are the "broadband only" prices - switch your calls to UTV too, and you get free evening and weekend calls, and get an additional €2 off your broadband.

Sconsey

I'm paying €31.99 for a 1Mb line on UTV, I think they dropped their prices a bit since I signed, up but those prices are only available to new users. So a 1Mb line from Eircom would be €29.99.

/Disclaimer: they upped my connection to 2Mb a while ago but my line can't handle it so they are downgrading to 1Mb again, but the price will not be changing.