I have just moved house, and changed internet provider to Virgin (simply because they could have the internet connected in about 2 days, which is faster than getting even a BT line installed). I did some quick speed tests to show how my old provider (Be) compares to Virgin. (Note that on Be I had their 10mbit connection as I could not get any faster because I was just too far from the exchange to get any better speeds)
Virgin speedtest
Be speedtest
And in case you were wondering what a truly fast internet connection looks like, this is what I get from work (IBM Hursley – I would expect to see a seriously fast connection here)
Work internet speedtest
I question your data – I can prove anything with a sampling of one =)
And a good point – Know any good tools for measuring net speed that can be scripted to run every hour for a week?