Verizon internet speed effects comps and xbox system?

Ok, so.. Iv done some research over the past week or two trying to find out why my Verizon internet connection has such problems. This is what iv learned...At random times seemingly undefined by a schedule or pattern, my internet speed will slow, sometimes to a halt for seconds and even hours. This happens both when i am the only one on the net and when i am sharing it with up to 3 others. Both the computer connected to the modem and the ones connected through a wireless network seem to experience the problem. Even when i connect my xbox 360 through Ethernet cable directly into my modem my latency goes unchanged. simple Youtube videos can take minutes to download befor being able to watch them as a whole where as they should take seconds. And playing my xbox live is a very unpleasant experience as i cant even play on par with others as im always two seconds and several steps behind everybody else. Its truly frustrating on a level i cant explain. So having these net problems i figured id go to the source. I called verizon tech support and the best they could offer was that i reset my modem (continually) until it works as i want it to. This feels like a waste of time but i do it anyway, praying for a solution. They ure me (in broken english with harsh Indian/Israelite overtones) that there is no cap on my broadband usage and that according to the tests that they do on my connection it seems to be running at maximum capacity supplying me with only the fastest and powerful internet connection. They insist its a problem with the xbox itself or the information i have given it to connect to their network as all my ports are open and the firewall is turned off. So i call the xbox tech support. After several hours of trouble shooting they ure me its not my game console but a problem with my internet connection. So i began trying things to help the connection like the aforementioned Ethernet cable to the xbox. I also moved my wireless modem closer to the xbox, reset it repeatedly and changed all the info on both verizon.com (ie: NaT settings, firewall settings and so on) and my xbox like the IP address. All of this to no avail... At this point i began to believe it was verizon itself and their crappy service so in desperation i went online to several websites that told me my download speed and upload speed were both way below normal where as my connection to this crappy stream of internet was fine, all five bars full. So this leads me to believe that its the net itself that verizon is supplying me with. not my modem or my connection strength or my xbox or anything in between. Here lies the problem, is there anyway to up my speeds without changing service or paying more for "faster" speeds from verizon? For that matter am i being ripped off for spending good money on a connection that's flawed and slow? Why when it does work does it work well, and then not work at all? Why not a steady flow of decent internet, instead of sometimes great, sometimes eyeball popping terrible? I cant seem to pinpoint the problem but im tired of working on it alone swimming through countless websites trying the generic answers and listening to hours of on hold "music" from verizon to do a few minutes of "Reset it.... does it work now?"and back on hold. So to recap, my net sucks, verizon blames my xbox. xbox techies blame verizon. my internet works sometimes but i cant put it to a pattern and its not storms or others using my net. its also not the connection itself as i always have great connection, just terrible speeds. What is going on and how do i fix it? (if i left out any important info you need to help me, just let me know and ill get it to you asap)