I have noted lately a decline in decent soldat ping and playability for myself

Is it just me? Do I need to start shopping an alternative broadband suplier?

it really depends on what kind of server you playing on and your connection.

if the server is close to you and you have a pretty good connection (cable,dsl) then it should have no problem, about 100-170 ping. not much lag in that kinda ping.

but mostly the ping problems are with the netcode, Michal is working on it frequently.