Nope. The "premium" service you're referring to is SDSL (Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line). The typical consumer service is ADSL (Asymmetric Digtial Subscriber Line).

Without getting into a chiphead dissertation, they're variations of the same technology. ADSL is (relatively) less costly to implement, and generally works well with the existing POTS ("plain old telephone service") copper to most premises, so that's why the telcos push it for consumer/small business use. SDSL requires more sophisticated technology and "cleaner" local loops (such as a separate circuit just for the service).

The lower upstream speed is not a regulatory mandate. It's a technological and economical tradeoff necessitated by the characteristics of the POTS infrastructure, and the rationale that most residential/small biz users are pulling more data than they're pushing back out. ADSL is also a "best effort" service, meaning there can be considerable inconsistencies in speed, and the provider really isn't obligated to ensure the theoretical maximums can be reached or sustained. Typically, as long as you are getting at least 70% of the advertised/rated speed, that's all you can hope for. Biz ADSL may have SLAs (service level agreements), but they primarily cover circuit availability (uptime), not throughput. For "industrial strength" use, one would need SDSL, or dedicated data loops.

If you want to know more about the ins-and-outs of DSL, check out broadbandreports.com.

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