@treewind The speed you actually get is limited by your distance from the telephone exchange. 8Mb is the theoretical speed you get when the two ends of the link are next to each other on the bench and it drops with increasing distance. At work we are at the limit of broadband about a mile from the exchange and we get 1Mb on an "up to 8Mb" connection. At that distance the received signal is barely above the background noise on the line (a theoretical limit) and it's amazing that we get a reliable connection at all.

It does seem to vary a lot from exchange to exchange. I'm about 2 miles from the exchange as the crow flies, 2.5 miles by the line route. The last mile is an old overhead line which feeds about 30 properties. I get a nominal 4Mb (tested today between 3.3 and 4.2).