Pace
My mother had a similar issue. The Pace box was useless, slow and kept crashing.
We asked for a replacement, they wheeled out another Pace box.
It too was useless, slow, kept crashing and mostly broken.
On the 3rd attempt we managed to get a Samsung box, which is OK but nothing compared even to the freeview receiver built in to most modern TVs.
The customer service are useless. Line goes down, is it a local fault? Do they know? Call them up, they suggest "Reboot modem, reboot computer. In Windows look at network properties" "I'm using a Linux box and an Xbox 360" I reply. "No no, we only support Windows. Bye <click>" as they hang up the phone.
Turned out it was a large local failure, but I had no way of knowing what was going on.
Now I have my own place, VM will never darken the door. Even with their persistant leaflet drops.
Was looking at this thread on that forum, someone requested 50mb, are getting around 10mb
http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Up-to-50Mb-broadband/Nice-one-VM/td-p/309557/page/1