Slow broadband since line upgraded

Question

My boradband speed seems to have slowed. For example I can no longer use BBC iPlayer on my Smart TV or PVR. It may be an amazing coincidence, but it seems the speed went slower at around the time BT sent me an email telling me that they had upgraded my line (13th December 2011). The email said to give it a 10 days to settle, but after 2 months it does not seem to have improved.
BT Speed test say I am getting 1.7Mbps out of 2.3Mbps but it feels slower. uSwitch are showing me as the slowest boradband connection of any house in my street at 1.4Mbps download / 0.3 upload. My Neighbours are apparently getting 2Mbps to 3.1Mbps via BT (and over 5Mbps from other suppliers).
Here are the details from my BT broadband router in case they help...
ADSL line status
Connection information
Line state            Connected
Connection time              1 day, 3:22:33
Downstream      1,728 Kbps
Upstream            344 Kbps
ADSL settings
VPI/VCI                0/38
Type      PPPoA
Modulation        ITU-T G.992.3
Latency type      Interleaved
Noise margin (Down/Up)             5.8 dB / 5.0 dB
Line attenuation (Down/Up)      52.5 dB / 25.4 dB
Output power (Down/Up)           0.0 dBm / 12.9 dBm
Loss of Framing (Local)  41
Loss of Signal (Local)       4
Loss of Power (Local)     0
FEC Errors (Down/Up)   0 / 4294967282
CRC Errors (Down/Up)   3908 / N/A
HEC Errors (Down/Up)   N/A / 10
Error Seconds (Local)      12274
Do you think this a problem with my connection or my local equipment?
cheers,
John

Answer 1

Thanks for speedy replies. Your assistance is appreciated and have followed the links and read the advice as best I could.
I plugged laptop directly into home hub (with Cat5) and did speed test and got the results below. This seems slower than I would have expected, but would value other peoples judgement.
1. Best Effort Test: -provides background information.
Download  Speed
1.51 Mbps
0 Kbps
2 Mbps Max Achievable Speed
 Download speed achieved during the test was - 1.51 Mbps  For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 800 Kbps-2 Mbps.  IP Profile for your line is - 1.52 Mbps
2. Upstream Test: -provides background information.
Upload Speed
304 Kbps
0 Kbps
832 Kbps Max Achievable Speed
Upload speed achieved during the test was - 304Kbps  Additional Information:  Upstream Rate IP profile on your line is - 832 Kbps
We were unable to identify any performance problem with your service at this time. It is possible that any problem you are currently, or had previously experienced may have been caused by traffic congestion on the Internet or by the server you were accessing responding slowly. If you continue to encounter a problem with a specific server, please contact the administrator of that server in the first instance.
Then I did a “quite line test” and heard only the faintest hints of noise.
Then I plugged home hub into the master socket, and did repeat “quite line test” and again heard very similar low levels of noise. Then I got the ADSL info from hub again, with following results:
ADSL line status
Connection information
Line state
Connected
Connection time
0 days, 0:06:52
Downstream
2,019 Kbps
Upstream
376 Kbps
ADSL settings
VPI/VCI
0/38
Type
PPPoA
Modulation
ITU-T G.992.3
Latency type
Interleaved
Noise margin (Down/Up)
6.3 dB / 6.0 dB
Line attenuation (Down/Up)
54.0 dB / 25.5 dB
Output power (Down/Up)
0.0 dBm / 12.9 dBm
Loss of Framing (Local)
52
Loss of Signal (Local)
5
Loss of Power (Local)
0
FEC Errors (Down/Up)
0 / 54
CRC Errors (Down/Up)
0 / N/A
HEC Errors (Down/Up)
N/A / 29
Error Seconds (Local)
12434
Even I can spot that this is different. Although I am not 100% sure what all the differences means, the Noise Margin is now better (6dB+). If understand what I have read this is good/OK. Given this I repeated the speed test (an hour after first one), with following results:
1. Best Effort Test: -provides background information.
Download  Speed
1.76 Mbps
0 Kbps
2 Mbps Max Achievable Speed
 Download speed achieved during the test was - 1.76 Mbps  For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 800 Kbps-2 Mbps.  IP Profile for your line is - 1.78 Mbps
2. Upstream Test: -provides background information.
Upload Speed
286 Kbps
0 Kbps
832 Kbps Max Achievable Speed
Upload speed achieved during the test was - 286Kbps  Additional Information:  Upstream Rate IP profile on your line is - 832 Kbps
We were unable to identify any performance problem with your service at this time. It is possible that any problem you are currently, or had previously experienced may have been caused by traffic congestion on the Internet or by the server you were accessing responding slowly.
If you continue to encounter a problem with a specific server, please contact the administrator of that server in the first instance.
I then carried on with some sort of QoS testing it offered and got the following:
1. Assured Rate Test: -provides background information.
Download Speed
1.85 Mbps
0 Kbps
0 Kbps Max Achievable Speed
 Download speed achieved during the test was - 1.85 Mbps  For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 0 Kbps-0 Kbps .  Additional Information:  Assured Rate IP profile on your line is - 0 Kbps
We were unable to identify any performance problem with your service at this time.
Given the above, it looks to me that some part of the problem is the internal phone wiring / noise beyond the master socket. Is that how others read this?
I also think that even going to the master socket I am still getting relatively slow download speeds compared to neighbour on the same exchange – and so that needs investigating too.
Cheers,
John