My experience with DSL is that providers use a "burst" to give you ~15-20mbit (whatever you pay for) for a few seconds, and then quickly slow down to ~1mbit. C

My experience with DSL is that providers use a "burst" to give you ~15-20mbit (whatever you pay for) for a few seconds, and then quickly slow down to ~1mbit. Cable companies tend to act the same way, but much less consistently.