It could have been managed much better than it was by Vodafone though. I got the perception it wasn't until they realised there were serious problems they actually decided to do something about it - but even then I thought their response was quite slow and poor. Compare to when XT started and kept crashing - Telecom provided credits to everyone affected. I don't believe Vodafone ever did anything similar; you had to call them and argue your case.
Cable used to be the bees knees. Today if I had to choose between ADSL or cable, I would choose ADSL. It's slower, yes, but at least you can rely on it.