its a simple question of available average bandwidth per user.
but dey avoid answering it anyways.
just meks me curious on how terrible the ratio is.........

37. What is a "contention ratio"?
To provide a cost effective service – Streamyx is 'contended' (shared) at the following ratios:

This contention is applied within the TM network - with other Streamyx subscribers on the same TM telephone exchange.

What this means in the 'worst case' is that you could be sharing a 1000 kbps connection with up to 25 other users. So if they were all using Streamyx at the same time 'theoretically' you would only get 40 kbps.

However, 'in reality' this scenario is very unlikely to happen and you should usually find it to be far faster than a dial-up connection.

Streamyx relies on individual users not making unreasonable traffic demands on the network to provide fast access speeds for all.

Remember if you are not getting the speed that you expect, it may not be due to the contention ratio only but many other factors including the capacity of the remote site you are accessing, the quality and distance of your telephone line from the local exchange.