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1.8. Why don't I get the exact speed that is advertised?
Here at Babtel, we are a retail Internet Service Provider (ISP). We are kind of like Verizon or Comcast, just 1/100th the size and a massive step down in the hierarchy. All ISPs use some form of bandwidth sharing, unless otherwise stated. You can buy Direct Internet Access from an ISP, but that is costly for you and requires a long term contract with the ISP. The most common practice that ISPs use to reduce the price and increase the ease of use is called "contention sharing." Babtel uses that very same practice.
Contention sharing explained: If a contention sharing ratio is 50:1, you would potentially share the bandwidth provided to your bandwidth-pool with 50 other users.
How does this effect you?
You may not get the exact advertised speed all the time:
- Conditions:
- Babtel uses contention ratio of 35:1
- you buy a package with maximum upload/download of 30Mbps (that's our ProCom+ plan)
- and every possible user of ProCom Plus is currently online (this happens during peak usage hours)
- Result:
- you have the potential to get a speed of 30Mbps/35... That means your speed could be just under 1Mbps.