Torrent throttling / traffic shaping

I can download torrents at about 200kb per sec which is great (on magnet)

I have three mates who can get 24kbps max (on NTL, Chorus (NTL/Chorus?), Eircom).

It's not the varying performance of different torrents because I've tried using the exact same torrent files I'm using and at the same time.

It's not to do with traffic at peak times because we've left torrents downloading for 3 days solid with no major fluctuation in speed.

When I take their laptops to my place they instantly get the same speeds I get.

So, am I right to conclude that those ISP's are throttling / traffic shaping?

If that is the case, whats the best way to get around it? I've read up a bit and found something along the lines of paying a few dollars a month for a shell account? is that the way to go? I heard something else about paying an annual subscription to usenet or something (but it was pub talk and I was a bit jarred at the time so details are fuzzy).

Can anyone explain the two options a bit more or tell me which'd be the best?

I'm no computer dummy but don't know where to start and don't want to learn it the hard way (I trust my fellow boardsies).

Any help would be much appreciated.