Services targeted at casual home users are frequently cheaper, but have a higher contention ratio. This means that the available network capacity is shared between a greater number of users.
Business services have a lower contention ratio, which will provide a more consistent level of performance. A 50 to 1 contention ration means the bandwidth may be shared with up to 50 other subscribers, whereas a 20 to 1 contention ration means the bandwidth may be shared with no more than 20 other subscribers.

Thus the performance of an ADSL connection will vary according to time of day and time of week, depending on how many other users happen to be on-line at that moment. "Basic" ADSL services in the UK (mainly using the British Telecom Network) typically have a contention ratio of 50:1 with the more expensive/business packages having 20:1.

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