Contention Ratios: Business Broadband vs Residential Broadband

The marketing of a broadband package will generally involve flinging a lot of figures around and hoping that casual viewers are impressed enough to commit to a package before they really understand what it entails.

While domestic users might not really be too fussed if they end up signing up for a broadband tariff that does not meet their needs, for businesses this can be a real concern.

A modern company should be expected to rely on its broadband connection for a variety of significant purposes, so if it is not up to scratch, it could be a costly burden rather than a valuable asset.

One figure that you may not always consider, perhaps as a result of not understanding its meaning, is contention ratio.

Information on this should be buried somewhere in the small print of most residential broadband bundles, but for business broadband it should be presented alongside expected line speeds and monthly usage allowance as a key feature of a package.

The smaller the contention ratio, the fewer people will be likely to access this fixed bandwidth at the same time.

In general, you will find that residential packages have average contention ratios of 50:1. This means that up to 50 people can share the same bandwidth allocation.

For small businesses in particular it might seem sensible to invest in a residential broadband package, at least from a financial point of view, because bargain prices and appealing bundles can give it the advertising edge over business deals.

However, a connection which is specifically tailored to enterprise usage will be the better fit in the long run because it will ensure that your broadband does not become a sluggish millstone that ends up hampering the growth of your company.

Business broadband is recommended to companies for a reason and just as domestic users should not choose a business package, businesses ought to avoid residential connectivity.