This is one reason why rural areas can be stuck with painfully slow broadband.
The further away you are from that exchange, the slower your connection will be. Standard ADSL broadband: The broadband signal is carried between your nearest telephone exchange and your home entirely over copper cables.The majority of UK broadband services are split into two types: Fibre optic cables are much faster and much more efficient, but most fibre deals still use a small amount of copper along the way. This can be true even if you have a fibre connection. This means that your broadband speed will be directly affected by how much copper cable is used in your connection. They're slow, and the signal they carry degrades the further it has to travel. Simply put, copper cables are not very efficient. The use of copper cables explains why there's so much variation in the broadband speeds available, and why you might get a much slower speed than someone living in the same postcode. However, the actual speed you'll get is affected by how much copper cabling your connection uses - something that even applies to most fibre services. Different broadband technologies have different maximum connection speeds, such as 24Mb or 80Mb. Most fixed line broadband services enter your home using your telephone line.