I'm in North Central Massachusetts with Verizon DSL and haven't had any speed problems at all. Just did a speed test and it's slightly higher than my average, up and down. Of course, since DSL uses phone lines, it could be a very localized problem resulting from damage caused by weather, etc...

You may need to insist that they send a tech out to check your signal strength and line noise at your home and at the pole. Because DSL uses a frequency range outside that used by voice communication, you could experience no degradation in voice quality, but still have noise effecting your DSL line.

It could also be a defective line filter (you should have filters that plug in between your phones and the wall jacks). You could try unplugging the phones in your house to see if it effects DSL speed. If it does, plug the phones back in one at a time until you find the defective filter.