My dad (who worked for BT in various positions) claims he was involved with the decision to move the exchange in our/their village from one end to the other. Coincidentally, closer to the end in which we lived, which I gather would have a non-trivial impact on our internet speed.

I think this probably coincides with the time period we got ISDN, very early, and I was amazed by the concept of _always connected_ internet. I can still vividly remember watching GoZilla download a game demo at 7kb/s, stunned and excited.