Experiement: @Optus Cable internet at home

My wife and I have been living in our new place for about three months now. We've been putting off hooking up Internet at home and using our iPhones to browse the web or tether to our computer at home, but there comes a time when 3G speeds just aren't that speedy.

As I was looking for an Internet Service Provider (ISP), it became apparent that our house had two things:

1. Optus phone lines
2. Optus Cable connections

The Optus phone lines were the biggest issue - a whopping $299 to transfer to Telstra, from which we could then move to another ISP. Otherwise, we were stuck with Optus. (at least that's what the sales consultants at other ISPs told us.
I was really keen to go with TPG or iPrimus, but neither seemed to be able to help us out of this dilemma.

Secondly, Optus Cable.
I'd noticed it when we first moved in and thought it would be neat to try out.
Would it actually be fast?
Some people say "Yes - it's amazing!"

... whilst others (including a very vocal posse on Whirlpool) say "It's hideous and they want to gouge their eyes out, because it's so slow."

Experiment - Optus Cable internet at home
Yesterday, we plugged it in and are going to test it out over the next two weeks, if it doesn't work, we'll switch across to a somewhat more reliable ADSL2+ connection.
It went like a rocket yesterday morning, but was definitely temperamental throughout the day and got to a crawl late last night.

What happens next, we'll very soon seen...