In reply to a post by adslmax:

SquirrelSave? sound like spam to me

I hope it is not seen as spam. I mention it because after quite a bit of research I have found it can consistently take advantage of my FTTC upload speed, which no other service I have tried has managed. It is thus an excellent benchmark of speedtesters, most of which also fall down on their upload tests (Thinkbroadband test is usually closest). I think this makes it completely relevant to this forum. I promise I have no connection to SquirrelSave or Memset other than as a satisfied customer.

Yes.

It's a backup ... it runs in the background and doesn't need to happen quickly.

The initial backup needs to take less than days to happen.
But the real killer (unless I have missed something) is the lack of structure in the 'backup'.

Upload of individual albums for sharing can be slowish without it mattering; Picasaweb/Google+ speeds are fine for that.