The thing that is enraging many folk (apart from the lack of '80mb' to all connections - remember those 'showers' of meteorites landing in the gardens of wide-eyed smiling families??)) is the way BT are blythely 'over-building' and treading on established 'private enterprise' networks despite the rules on state aid. Apart from the well-documented previous cases, a current classic is the situation with B4RN which has been steadily rolling out gigabit fibre to a lot of the more remote premises in the north-west - without subsidy - and now find BT 'mail-shooting' at least one of their areas and offering 'high-speed broadband' (laugh!) via FTTC (funded by you and me, of course), the area being one which BT had publicly stated they would not be supplying. To make matters worse, the company, B4RN, cannot seek private or RCBF funding for the 'missing 10%' areas since BT and councils are blocking release of the location of these - and it will be a couple of years before all are identified anyway. There are also significant issues for two broadband suppliers, one fibre and one wireless, on the Isle of Wight who claim that the Council has 'ignored' their significant presence during the award of the BDUK contract to BT - in contravention of state aid rules again - and I believe this situation exists over the whole country. These companies, incidentally, are seeking no or minimal exteranl funding to cover the island, whereas the IoW council are spending £6million of taxpayers money on BT with no 'guarantees' of service.
The EU rules for use of state aid are clear. It cannot be used to fund areas with existing suppliers and must not be used in a way which adversely impacts on other suppliers and their business. Even more annoying is the fact that nearly all the 'alternative' suppliers are offering genuine 'high speed' broadband (40mb or more, up to 1gb) in contrast to the BT product. One line in Ewhurst in Surrey is sweltering in a 1.4mb BT FTTC connection due to line problems............................. BT of course, have no obligation to improve a line above that required for voice and fax. Some customers on BT Infinity are finding that the old ADSL will deliver better speeds due to the greater losses at the higher frequencies. This of course brings into question another EU 'rule' that state aid must only be used to provide a 'step change' in speeds. I guess as long as you 'feel 'a step change that is ok?? It is hinging on farcical.
Another interesting (and widely predicted) happening is that some of the '20mb' satellite services are often dropping to 1mb or less at peak times. I read, for example, of Tooway's system slowing up badly occasionally, and I did use a friend's Tooway connection at 1630 one day and found it very slow. It is, after all, quite difficult to shin up a pole and put another aerial on a satellite.
Buyers/taxpayers beware!