Actually Rob, the world's internet system is near breaking point, you can't blame the ISP's, as you point out, they are just the conduit. They do not control the main nodes, they are all run by the major networking companies.
Around 80% of all available bandwidth in the world is now used for downloads of large files & streaming video, the hardware was not built to cope with that much.
The worlds hardware needs upgrading but that will take years, so it is up to the software engineers to devise ways, and they are currently working on P2P for things like iplayer, etc, which will spread the load more evenly.
As for your mate, it says in the T&C you may not get the full whack, and as he'll be sharing with 50 other folk, all downloading, hard luck. You do get what you pay for, tell him to pay more for a 20:1 or 10:1. An no one gets 8 mbps on a 8 mbps line.
I'm on 20:1 and this can sometimes drop to 2.5 mbps during the week days, other times it is probably 1:1 as no business to share it with out in the sticks during other times.
