I have 4Mbps broadband but only ever manage to achieve about 1Mbps downloads. If I upgrade to 8Mbps, can I expect the speed to improve? Surely if it is possible to get a faster download speed, I am entitled to that under my existing 4Mbps package? David Lewis
You are not buying a specific download speed, you are buying a connection based on one of a family of DSL technologies. That technology will operate at the highest reliable speed it can manage, given the quality of the line, the number of joints in the line, and the distance from the exchange. If you upgrade to DSL Max, this uses different equipment at the exchange, and you should get faster downloads. The 8Mbps system will start at 2Mbps, increase the speed, and see how it goes over the next three days. If the line is the major limiting factor, you may not get much of an improvement, and it could even be worse, but your upload speed should be faster. Note that DSL Max is a "rate adaptive" service that works out the maximum stable rate over 10 days, so try not to turn off or keep rebooting your router: the line management system could see these as line problems and keep reducing the speed. In theory, I think you can drive the speed down to 288kbps before it becomes a "fault".
