I am no expert on the subject by any means, but to my knowledge , when you agree to a certain package , they set your bandwidth in what they call a boot file, which limits speed. Correct me if im wrong . What I meant by third tier is the techs @ your isp that acually Know there sh*t. If you get this sometimes , not always I would say, not being an expert, once again, network traffic, or uncapping on your node.Oh yeh dont forget possible laser misfire on the head end , just to name a few possibilities.