I have been generally in favour of hitting services like p2p and throttling bandwidth for just those services. In the last few weeks I have seen my speed reduced to below 3MBit on what should be a 10MBit connection. I feel aggrieved because I am not a heavy downloader I must have just hit their limit.
I decided I'd had enough - there is no point having a fast connection then being told you can't use it much. Web browsing and email is much the same at most decent broadband speeds, so what's the 10/20Mbit connection for exactly?
I signed up with Be Unlimited and within 10 days was online - and I'm getting just over a 20MBit connection for £24.99 a month. Be support is superb and there simply aren't any slowdowns or traffic shaping. The whole online experience feels very snappy and fast.
Interestingly a while ago I tried Sky Broadband - my exchange supports Sky & Be LLU - and only got 6.5MBit. I called NTL Retentions and they agreed to price match at £10 a month for 10MBit. Still not good enough, though, so I stayed a while and then went to Be.
Unfortunately for a lot of Virgin Media punters who have a VM phone line, a change to a BT phone line is needed for Be or any other ADSL service.
Check if your exxchange is enabled by visiting
www.samknows.co.uk - if you have a BT number to enter (even a neighbour's) it will tell you how far from the exchange you live (as the crow flies). I am 825 metres, hence my decent speed.