I don't think it's "horrific" for a 3km ADSL2+ line that was torrenting a 41GB database (legally, for security research purposes: techbeacon.com/node/2490). What are you seeing that I'm not?
3 km line on THTG: 18/1.2 Mb/s with Plusnet Business Previously: BT ISDN, Nildram, Plusnet, 186k, EFH, Be*, Plusnet (again), Pulse8, Sky
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A heavily used line will see significant increases in latency. It doesn't explain the red lines though but that could have just been a blip if it doesn't happen regularly.