Scruggs,
Is this ADSL or cable?
I had been suffering regular dropouts earlier this year on VM cable - a few minutes a few times a day when I would suffer from 20-80% packet loss on a continuous ping - when I contacted VM last month.
I had got loads of details, proving that it was the local device (next hop router - see your modem status) that was failing, gave them the IP address of the faulty unit and they confirmed that there was a problem with the "box in the street".
They gave me £10 off my monthly bill (because I had complained of the problem previously), they sent out a new cable modem and gave me a date on which the repair would be carried out (it was).
I haven't had any problems since (touch wood, famous last words).
SD