Hey mate
To your questions yea they traffic shape on peak times and on a personal note.. since it switched to Virgin Media i havn't found them so reliable but there's plenty of others that have and havn't. I would think they could deliver the 8meg line properly though, only had 'less than quoted' speeds since i switched to the 20meg
service.. give it a shot and if its crappy you can always terminate within' 30 days anyway.
Good luck
~ Kitty x