From Hell to Heaven, i.e. BT Broadband to BE There

Just migrated to BE There and first impressions are good.

BT Broadband's pathetic speed



To BE There



What a result so far!

Yep - the line technology makes all the difference for people like you -- long way from exchange.

BT would have probably been using ADSL (up to 8 Mbps) if they haven't yet rolled out their newer version based on 21cn rollout
Be are using ADSL 2+ (up to 24 Mbps)

If you move to FTTC (one product is BT Infinity) you will likely see a huge leap as the "dsl" connection (actually VDSL2) is only between you and the green box, not exchange. That could give you anything up to 40/10 on today's residential packages.

ADSL2+ should make no downstream difference if the modem was connecting at around 2.5Meg before.

What is very likely is that the BT line had a higher target noise margin, and the reset of this with the move to Be has resolved this.

Without the line attenuation at a minimum it is hard to say a lot

Good point...

Though for my ~4 Mbps line, ADSL2 did give a speed boost (though it may be more in the window)

Those extra frequencies on ADSL2+ certainly helped me.

When BT upgraded my local exchange (Oct 2010), my profile
went from a fluctuating 5500 - 6000 to a steady 6500.

With a little gentle tweaking of the SNR margin, I am now able
to acheive a profile of 7150 on a regular basis.

- Alex

Well I would expect some degree of boost, and ADSL2 will give smaller boosts even to lines of 1Meg.

ADSL2+ though really only kicks in at higher speeds.

ADSL2+ is different to ADSL2 which is different to ADSL

ADSL2+ up to 24Meg uses extra frequencies
ADSL2 up to 12Mbps better maths to squeeze more out of the same ADSL frequencies
ADSL up to 8Meg

Also some people see an improvement, simply because target noise margins get reset, or their modem likes the new MSAN better.