We are semi-rural, and the last 50m of the wire that carries the broadband is my own piece of semi-illicit work from the house to the back-end of the garage where I work.
With Eclipse Networking, I got 0.7 - 0.9mbps according to most speed testers. The "paid for speed" was 2mbps.
I blamed the distance and my wiring.
Then I switched to Utility Warehouse as ADSL supplier and the same testers now routinely vary between 4 and 6 mbps. The paid for speed is 8mbps, I think. And I saved £25.00 or so per month in charges by changing.
There's a lesson there somewhere! Eclipse is a perfectly reputable and good company, if expensive, but they do prioritise their business customers who pay a lot more.