x213a,
I'm 12 days in to my BT experience so far
My condolences.
However I digress, and in reply to your question about speeds, I will copy/paste verbatum (well almost) from a post I've already made in a previous thread here.....
You should make yourself familiar with the BT spec for the service :
http://www.btwebworld.com/sinet/485v1p0.pdf
The document details, amongst other things, what BT considers to be acceptable speeds for the service.
It also contains this tidbit, which all *DSL users should remember ......
Typically, the End Users require occasional fast but ‘bursty’ access to private network facilities and / or the Internet (via the Customer). The products are not suitable for End Users who require continuous bit-rate, full-bandwidth services.
("the Customer" being your ISP, i.e. BT in your case ... and "the End User" being you.)