speed question?

[#1]

hi, can anyone explain to me about what internet speeds are available for me.
I am a current customer and at present I have a 7mb download speed. I have been informed by others in the town who are with talk talk and sky that they are getting 20mb.
I have been to these websites and it does say that I can get up to 20mb on both sites, but when I go to the bt site and the plusnet sites it states that I can expect the 7mb that I currently get.
is it down to Local-loop unbundling?
I don't want to change supplier due to fibre optic soon, but it is rather annoying

[#2]

Hi,
What you can get all depends on what your exchange has available - go look here http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/adslchecker.php
To get better that 8Mbps with PlusNet, your exchange has to offer the WBC 21CN product, which means you might benefit from the higher speeds offered by ADSL2+.
What might be the situation in your location - given you mention higher speeds with Talk-Talk & Sky - is that LLU is available from other providers but 21CN is not being provided by BT Wholesale.
If this is the case, the other providers are offering a faster service because they use different in-Exchange equipment.  Do you know which market group your exchange falls into?  (see above link).  Some of the OFCOM competition rules are complex so as to encourage 3rd party suppliers to invest in some areas and inhibiting BT Wholesale (and thereby ISP retailers such as PlusNet) from offering (speed) competing services.
You might be better just waiting for fibre if it is coming soon - look here http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/btwchecker.htm

[#3]

Unfortunately we can only offer you 20CN (Up to 7mbps) products as that's the only technology our suppliers provide at your exchange in this moment in time.
Companies like Sky and TalkTalk will have their own equipment which will offer 21CN (up to 17mbps).

[#4]

that explains it then, thought it was a bit odd. fibre optic should be enabled in the next couple of months anyway so happy to stay with plusnet