Neil,
Thanks for your response. I thought I'd wait a few days to see how things panned out. The answer is not well. Pingtest is giving me a rating of F - 8% packet loss, ping of 149ms and and jitter of 141. I cannot download app upgrades from the iTunes store - they get about half way through and then stop. Pausing and restarting kicks them off briefly. Radio streams from the BBC stutter horribly. I haven't even bothered to try a Youtube video.
Why am I paying so much money for 50Mbps?
Here's a traceroute result:
traceroute: Warning: bbc.co.uk has multiple addresses; using 212.58.254.252
traceroute to bbc.co.uk (212.58.254.252), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
1 10.240.96.1 (10.240.96.1) 129.349 ms 10.713 ms 12.253 ms
2 bmly-core-1a-ae1-2437.network.virginmedia.net (81.100.1.17) 57.559 ms 11.412 ms 11.800 ms
3 popl-bb-1a-as6-0.network.virginmedia.net (212.43.162.57) 12.951 ms 151.138 ms 13.843 ms
4 * nrth-bb-1b-as3-0.network.virginmedia.net (213.105.172.13) 62.728 ms 38.494 ms
5 nrth-tmr-2-ae6-0.network.virginmedia.net (213.105.159.34) 99.374 ms * 17.797 ms
6 tele-ic-1-as0-0.network.virginmedia.net (62.253.184.2) 19.336 ms 71.777 ms 16.425 ms
7 pos6-1.rt0.thdo.bbc.co.uk (212.58.239.237) 247.532 ms 39.427 ms 48.782 ms
8 212.58.238.153 (212.58.238.153) 183.761 ms 199.189 ms 111.451 ms
9 rdirslb0.thdo.bbc.co.uk (212.58.224.136) 21.450 ms 55.407 ms 119.546 ms
10 virtual3.rbsov.bbc.co.uk (212.58.254.252) 19.575 ms 135.710 ms *
I've not posted power levels again as Pete's previous post suggested they were ok. There seems to be something seriously wrong in my area (SW2).
To be clear, I don't see this as a problem that happens for 5-10 minutes during the evenings. It happens for several hours every evening.