Another pragmatic solution is to call the editors of comm week, network world, data communications and suggest that they might get a lot of mileage writing a story comparing and contrasting the performance of ISPs. They do this for routers, bridges, FR services so they can probably find a respectable consulting/measurement group to collect information. Some of this could be live empirical data and some of this could be survey. cheers, peter
From Kent England
Unfortunately, the practical solution to your problem is to shop around and the more you know about your unique topological concerns the better off you'll be. I wish there was a Net Consumers Report service that you could subscribe to, but we aren't quite there yet.
So, John, relax a little knowing you are fundamentally right and your expectations are entirely reasonable and please accept my apology that the Internet isn't quite ready yet to meet your needs. I take solace in the fact that it has never been better and that it will continue to get better.
--Kent speaking as a long time Internet services person