See Don's post here
http://www.thechipboard.com/index.cgi/page/1/md/read/id/1230891/sbj/ncr-board-xtremely-slow/

I guess your infrastructure is completely different to ours.
Maybe ours works in a strange way. We have effectively a 'national grid' of cable/phone line connecting every property, owned by one company. Every ISP or phone company then leases bandwidth from them according to use. A user can therefore pick any ISP they like. I had assumed the same sort of arrangement existed in the US and that most people had a choice.
How many high speed providers do you have? I guess we are spoilt for choice here with maybe 50 in the UK alone.