What can I do to speed up my download speed???

[brownhornet]

When I tether the top download speed I get is like 16kb/sec, is that normal? I always figured the download speeds should be a bit more than that. Does it matter that im roaming? I'm not in an alltel area so i'm not sure who's tower im on (Sprint I think) but the light is always flashing as roam where I live now since I moved after I go the alltel phone. I mean its decent even though its slow...i'm just wondering is this pretty much the general speed under these circumstances.