I don't doubt you however sub-contracting and further sub-contracting is still common. One company recently did a spot check found that their outsourced field engineering team was being fulfilled in part by Bulgarian shop fitters who in the current downturn, were doing whatever work they could get.

Not sure what you've got against good, decent contractors ? Contractors are a good way to keep market-rates down. There is very little benefit for companies to do their own in-house civils.

The good ones, absolutely nothing at all. There is one company in London who are so good that they have a pledge that each error found by the client means x % off the invoice. They are doing very well and good luck to them.

Sadly, we still have utilities who contract out and get this

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_8GlWYXT9zzg/TU...514%5B3%5D.jpg

I have the same problem, live in the sticks with a long line, about 8k. I found that I got a reasonable result using a face plate (already mentioned) and a Thomson SpeedTouch router, a 585 I think.
I did a bunch of research when trying to get the broadband working and found that this router was being used in Oz with some success, obviously long lines there!
I think someone already mentioned some router chipsets are better than others. I think (might of been binned) I have the SpeedTouch modem (not router) at home which I used initially to test the chipset. If you want it I can send, but not home until mid March.
We (the village) are going from probably one of the slowest to one of the fastest places in the country later this year with a wirless link to a fibre optic backhaul into the BT main network and some 20Mbs+ DSL, courtesy of some grant funding.

Hi BAOC- this latest test was done using the "Official" BT speed tester, from their webby, results show the fibs that the main online checkers tell......as nothing had been changed system wise I think the result stands in good stead compared to others.

cheers

gr