BT is fibre to a node (Cabinet), then raw copper after (sometimes just aluminium). The copper also has to support a regular phone line so various technologies are put in place to make the most of the "unused" part of the cable. That technology is capable of supporting higher upload speeds, but the side effect is how quickly both download/upload speeds diminish over distance due to the unshielded nature of the copper.
Virgin uses fibre to a node (Cabinet) but even at this level the technologies are different. After that, they differ even more, going forward in a shielded coaxial cable (still copper, but very different cable). The technologies in play here are geared towards maximising the available bandwidth in that copper cable but in a way that it doesn't diminish over distance. The side effect of this is that your speeds don't quite diminish over distance but you don't get much bandwidth in the "upstream" direction compared to the downstream.
TL;DR
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Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq
Different technology.
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