Sounds like a pretty local issue, and while it's true that there are spots like that (Mudchute in the Docklands is also awful) a lot of the areas with FTTC are

Sounds like a pretty local issue, and while it's true that there are spots like that (Mudchute in the Docklands is also awful) a lot of the areas with FTTC are pretty stable ... just look at TBB broadband stats for real speed tests. Anecdotal ... I've lived in two completely separate areas of the UK and been connected to 3 different FTTC cabs ... none of them were problematic.