In message , at 23:23:27 on Mon, 30 May
2011, D A Stocks remarked:
I suspect all ISP 'pipes' plug into Brighton so our ping will always
be slower than their's and they take precedence.

It's more likely to be dictated by the likely market for ISP services
in the area(s) served by the local 'exchange' i.e. the point where your
'phone line connects to the rest of the network, since that is also the
interconnection point for your ISP. I expect the population density and
demographics mean that central Brighton & Hove gets a *lot* more
hardware for broadband services than you would find in most of the rest
of Sussex.

Clive Feather has a handy guide to this on his website:

http://www.davros.org/phones/btnetwork.html

If the OP is using Virgin Media, then it's quite unlikely any of that
applies (they do have some ADSL, but it's mainly their own network).

Similarly Sky (nee Easynet) and many others have LLU backhaul from
Worthing, which means they all have interconnects in Worthing.

I'd also be surprised if Worthing was undersubscribed in terms of BT
broadband service (compared to Brighton) as it's a "Market 3" area.

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/SDWCNTR
--
Roland Perry