[DeadKenny]

Originally Posted by slowcoach

I live1 mile from the exchange (as the crow flies) so in theory I should be in the 90% reachable group for 1MB/s ADSL yet my max under extended reach was 512 KB/s, this is the difference between theory and practice.

No, that's down to understanding the difference between "as the crow flies" and the real line length. There's no in theory about it, you must be a lot longer distance from the exchange than you thought so you're not in the 90% group.

At least with Cable I can order, and receive, 1.5 MB/s without having to live next door to the exchange.

I could order and receive it, but it was never reliable. The reason being that the line quality was crap. Maybe affected by distance too I don't know. With NTL they don't care about the line quality, they just connect the cable and leave without checking any signals. With BT they put limits and actually admit that your line may not be good enough to receive the service you want. If NTL did that, it would probably save a vast amount of money wasted on pointless call outs to fix lines that are unfixable.

The new ADSL speeds appear to me to be more a reaction to the planned Cable speed increases, with companies trying to lure in new customers for the Christmas connection rush more than anything else.

No, just a progression of technology. This 8Mbps service has nothing to do with BT, being LLU, and they can offer speeds that the technology can actually cope with. If the length of the line is too long it's reduced to 6, 4 or 2Mbps, but you're guaranteed 2Mbps. If anything UK Online are competing with the likes of Bullldog, not the cable companies (who tend to have a monopoly in cabled areas anyway as most people automatically go for cable with the assumption that it must be better). Also, UK Online are not competing with cable in non-cabled areas. Their coverage is far greater than cable can ever reach.

It's worth pointing out that as "wonderful" as cable is deemed to be, NTL are investing in expanding their network using LLU ADSL. It's cheaper for them and more reliable. Eventually the majority of NTL/Telewest customers will be accessing the internet through ADSL.

An ADSL line would have to be perfect to avoid loosing connection every few minutes at these higher speeds and we all know that the old telephone system is far from perfect even for voice calls.

I've not lost connection on my ADSL for a month now. Not once. My cable modem would drop connection every day. In some cases it wouldn't regain connection for hours. With NTL, your line also has to be perfect to avoid losing connection every few minutes.

It's also a myth that cable is modern and advanced to an extent that it doesn't suffer from the problems that the POTS does. Most of the cable is 10 to 20 years old and was designed for analogue TV. If you remember the analogue cable days you may have noticed that a lot of people's cable reception was not actually as great as people assumed it would be. Mine was grainy and had interference and I'd seen the same in other's houses. Only if the cable was in good condition was it fine. For broadband the cable works on a broadcast system on the downstream much like the old coax Ethernet cables and we all know how problematic that was (collisions of traffic, interference and major problems if a connection was unterminated, all of these are symptoms on cable). With ADSL you get a dedicated connection down copper wire, and regardless of the age of the wire, it's surprisingly reliable, plus it's far more resistant to rot and being eaten by things in the ground.

This is all of course before even considering the roll out of ADSL2/2+.

Reading the responses in this Forum you get the impression that members think these speeds will be theirs for the asking, even though many members must live even further from their local telephone exchange than I do.

It's clearly stated on UK Online's site that you may not get the full 8Mbps, but you should get a minimum of 2Mbps. The majority will get between 6 and 8Mbps though.