In the average user s mind, the two big issues currently surrounding ADSL relate to contention ratios and security.
Contention ratios are difficult to understand and often make little sense.
The truth is that although BT suspect multiple ADSL owners on the same circuit will not cut into one another s bandwidth, the possibility is there, but we won t know fully until the service is widely used. But for the benefit of those who want to know, contention ratios work like this. If all of them attempt to use every byte of bandwidth simultaneously though, they will likely all be shunted down to as little as 128Kbps. If it s not, it may be a little lopsided depending on the luck of the draw. The other issue I mentioned is security.