Before FTTC ( fibre to the cab ) was widespread, regular ‘broadband’ was exchange based ADSL/ADS2 , the ‘equipment’ instead of being sited in a street based cabinet like FTTC , the equipment is in the exchange , the technology also has a theoretical maximum of 24Mb ( rather than 80Mb with FTTC ) , but like FTTC , the speed is reduced the further away your address is from the equipment , most people are much closer to their cabinet than the exchange, so typical FTTC speeds may be 63Mb , typically ADSL is 17Mb but obviously it depends on how far your address is from the exchange.
In my case , I’m 5km from the exchange, (only 80m from the cabinet) on exchange based ADSL2 I got around 3.5Mb ,( I now get 80 Mb from FTTC ) , if I were in your situation and had to go back to ADSL and 3.5Mb …( it doesn’t sound much these days ) but I had standard def Netflix, browsing, email etc all we’re fine , but ( obviously ) I wouldn’t voluntarily go back to it, ( some do because it can be very cheap) but if it were the only solution in the short term I would take it
