the 6 or 7 miles to Maidenhead is not the distance to my local exchange but the distance to the nearest place that the speed tester (
Broadband Speed Checker - THE UK's No.1 Broadband Speed Test) uses for ping test. When we had our line tested when we moved to O2 as our ISP, they managed to sustain 18Mb download. As we only signed up for 8Mb they soon throttled it back.
I was just winding myself up to complain earlier this week when everything returned to normal, typically getting 8 - 9Mb download speed. It is still back to normal.
Ta,
Rans6.......