I don't know about outlawing it- they have to show best speed available - Contention should be an important part of peoples decisions when purchasing- but now I reckon a lot of people don't even check- Hard to find/know true contention when providers hide it so well on their pages. there should be more regulation on that I feel..
Its basic maths, higher the contention - less likely you are to get your speed when you need it most -when everyone else does.
I disagree.. they should be forced to provide accurate speeds. This could be done in several ways... i.e you will have speeds in excess of 1Mb/s for 80% of the time.
What's the point in saying the max speed is 7.2Mb/s if that is unachievable in practice? i.e the technology allows these speeds in ideal conditions but in the real world they're not possible.
For example, many mobile providers say that their terms and conditions don't even allow guaranteed access indoors. Although Meteor also say on their website that 'you'll be covered unless you live in a cave'.. (I paraphrase)... while simultaenously saying that indoor coverage for mobile broadband is not guaranteed.
Isstead of advertising the maximum, theoretical speed, they sould be forced to publish something like a load factor, which could be a median speed achieved by all their customers.
I think that if a provider cannot garentee a certain speed they should not advertise it. Wiimax are terrible for doing this. I myself have bb with them in what was ment to be a 7mb line an to date I have yet to get more than 2mb due to contention in the area. In fact we have just found out that they are taking no more contracts in my area as the line is full now meaning even worse speeds and this is from a company who had promised us no contention rates when they were selling it to us. This should be seen as faluse advertising