It's not actually BT's fault. Industry regulations make it illegal to site VDSL equipment inside the same building as ADSL for interference reasons. One solution is of course to install a cabinet just outside the exchange and indeed they've done this in a few places now. Unfortunately local network topography can make this prohibitively expensive.
Imagine an exchange in the middle of a town surrounded by houses and shops. Now imagine a hundred lines fanning out from it in all directions. Now imagine sticking a cabinet in one place. At most it might be convenient for two or three lines. The rest need to be diverted (in some cases from the opposite side of the exchange) round to the new cabinet then looped back round to their original point. It might not even be possible to bring lines round like that without digging up people's gardens or bulldozing properties. You can't do it inside the exchange because that might mean relocating equipment racks and cable frames for the entire exchange. And even then a lot of EO lines are long lines for remote isolated properties. They won't gain anything from being attached to an FTTC cabinet outside the exchange.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
