BT Broadband speed degradation issues

Lesgaz

I Hope this is the correct forum for this debate?

Since late 2008 my BT broadband download speed has experienced a degradation of service during the hours of 16:00 and 23:00 every day. The download speed drops often to less than 400Kb/s and the whole thing slows down to the point of becoming barely usable, with some sites timing out before getting connected.
I am fully aware of the fact that the service is effectively shared with all the other BT users in my town and that some degradation is likely to occur at peak times.
I have registered a complaint about the service to BT and they did some remote line tests and say that my connection is not capped and that it is rated at 6Mb/s, and outside peak hours I do get very good download speeds of circa 5.5Mb/s. The remote tests they did do not show a problem, so we have an engineer coming out today to have a look, and the BT support process so far has been OK.
I have been with BT broadband for years and the service has, up until recently, been good to acceptable, so I do not want to be negative about them.
I think my current contract runs for another 7-9 months so I would have difficulties terminating my contract without incurring costs, however, does anyone think it possible to exit the contract for nothing if BT have effectively provided a downgraded service? I.e. would providing a poor grade of service to that normally available be enough to constitute a breach of contract.
Other peoples experiences of this would be useful feedback.

regards

DatabaseError

I've voted possibly, but in your case, I'd say probably not

run the bt speedtester at various times of the day, including when things get really bad, and use the results to negotiate an early termination (maybe post some here?!), but BT are selling you an "up to" service, not a "from" or "expected"

Seagull

It's not just BT, I've been with O2 for a few months and am experiencing exactly the same speed problem.