Welcome to the world of slow UK broadband. Unfortunately we are suffering from that well known syndrome of being first in something. Because the telecommunications infrastructure in the UK was laid down such a long time ago for simple voice communications it's not up to the job of high speed digital data flow. On top of that it is, to all intents and purposes, run by a monopoly called BT. For them to completely relay all the cables in the UK would cost several useful body parts. There are private companies now coming in but even they are only installing new equipment into local telephone exchanges. The bit from the exchange to your house still relies on good old fashioned copper wires (or in the worst case aluminium wires). When we get fibre optics to every residence we might finally see an improvement.

Incidentally, his ISP is this one.