It is also to do with the lack of any work done on the exchanges. Type 'telephone exchange upgrade' into google if you want to know more. You may qualify for ADSL2+ in your area, which is a more stable, faster connection.
Oh, but hang on...no, no it isn't. See below:
3. Will it benefit me? (Oh the irony)
ADSL2+ still works very much the same way as ADSL, so your speeds will still depend on many factors such as:
• The distance from your home to your local telephone exchange (see point 5).
• Quality of the copper phone line.
• Quality of cabling and equipment.
• Demand at peak/off-peak times (traffic).
• Bad weather or EMI (Electromagnetic Interference)
Due to there being so many different possible influences on your connection and speeds, we cannot guarantee that everyone will benefit from BT's rollout scheme of ASDL2+ (21CN). It is possible that you experience no changes at all, although the vast majority of people will at least receive a more stable connection, if not an increase in download speeds.
http://freeola.com/adsl2-21cn-rollout/In other words, no of course it won't help you because its just the same overloaded bit of copper wire with an upgraded extension at the end of it.
People still seem to think that an alternative provider to BT will give them a better service. Well its the same bit of copper wire, owned by BT, whatever you pay and to whoever - unless you are on wireless internet. Therefore paying more a different provider won't help you.
Also a random snapshot of your current upload/download speed is about as much use a chocolate teapot. Utterly meaningless I am afraid. You will know if you have a bad line, my internet cut out about five times yesterday and thats pretty standard, although I am on it all day. That is the sort of connection problem I am referring too, an ongoing source of maddening frustration.
It makes absolutely no difference where you live, its all about how far you are from the exchange. People presume the distance makes the signal weaker, well marginally but really its more about the amount of people who are using the same line as you, the further you are away from the exchange, the more people will be using the line. That is really the problem but there is no chance of that getting rectified as it costs money.
The whole firm has been appallingly badly run for years. Completely unjustified pay packets at the top, poorly paid and badly trained staff and a mountain of pension liabilities which take the lions share of any profits each year. So, just another British firm really.
