capping the apt-getting of packages from ftp.xy.debian.org to < 50KBps?

["Frank Wilson" <fajwilson@gmail.com>]

I seem to find it hard to get a decent speed for any of the ftp
archive mirrors. I've tried using net-select but I rarely get over
50KBps and often get less than 30KBps (big B stands for bytes here!).
I have considered using axel instead of wget with apt-get (to increase
my download speed by downloading in parallel), but if debian is
capping the download speed on its servers by this much then I would
not like to "hammer" them by trying to circumvent the cap.

I only have a couple of computers running debian so running a local
mirror might be a bit overkill.

Are downloads from the debian package archive capped? Is there an apt
setting I may have missed? It could be my isp, but I'd like to rule
these out before I spend a fortune on their tech support line. 8-)

Thanks for any help or advice you can give me,

Frank