Hotmail has been one of the foremost email providing service along with USA.net and RocketMail (now part of yahoo). I have been on to hotmail since July 1996.
I have seen good old days of hotmail, when it was not owned by Microsoft. It used to be real fast, as numbers of users were less. After Hotmail was picked up by Microsoft, all Microsoft Passport users were automatically added to Hotmail. That reduced the speed. Main reason why Hotmail runs slow is the Passport Authentication that is initiated when you log on to the site. Which is also used, when you use any other MSN related service. This process is very slow. Another reason for process being slow is the security implemented (Exchange of SSL certificates and all that crap which ensures that you do not go to a site that impersonates Hotmail). Due to this, speed has been very slow.
But what I have observed is that, once you log on, you can easily work with the site.
Another shorter route to access your email is, use MSN Messenger to log on, and then say check email. This is the fastest way to get to Passport Authentication, which is performed by MSN Messenger on your system itself.
Hotmail used to provide free pop3 facility, which is now part of premium service (which means you have to pay for it).
Those of you, who have tried to access Hotmail thru Outlook Express would know how slow it is. I do not suggest using Outlook Express from India, where bandwidth is very slow.