“This jaw dropping announcement left me silent for a moment or two while it really sunk in that he thought three hundred and fifty kilobytes per second was “about” four megabytes per second.”

Was, as heather pointed out, a typo. When I was talking about the actual broadband speed I expect you can see I used the mbps and kbps.

The fact the technical support person thought 400kbps was about “four megabytes per second” (his exact words) is the point I was trying to get across.

I am more than aware of the difference between bits and bytes, and how the quoted speed of telecommunications systems are often different from the reality.

I have never, ever, expected to get 4 megabytes per second on my line. At the moment it is not even rated at 8 megabits – it is rated at 500kilobits (as I said). Thank you for suggesting I do some research – I do try to ensure I do as much research as possible. Is there any particular thing you want me to look into?

I don’t think you’ve understood TW’s point here. He may have written “megabytes” rather than megabits (as a typo, though i can’t spot it. I just see mbps).

His point is that he is not getting within a tenth of the speed that he expects from his ADSL service. He is connecting to the Internet at basically dial-up speed. DIAL-UP Speed, call it what you will in megabits, megaflops or megastars.

He is paying as much as I am paying for getting almost the full 20 megabits that I get with a cable connection. And he is getting treated like crap when he tries to get it sorted.

You mention 4 megabytes as being the download speed when infact you would never get that, the Max on your line is 8 megabits, yes, megabits, do some research and post back. You might be interested in what you find.