Yep this is half my point, line quality is huge in DSL. Sonic (or any other DSL provider) couldn't reasonably give you a guarantee on speeds, even though they know how far you are from the CO (last time I checked they gave you this number when checking availability). I have paired lines and they are also unbalanced (approx 6.5 and 5.5 down), despite assuredly taking the same path from the CO.