o2: 128k 3G limitation was provisioning error; sorted this week

Remember the outrage from folk about o2’s 128k 3G ‘limitations’? (Whatley, for example, was seriously under impressed.)

Well I heard from o2’s PR today and the issue is actually simply a provisioning error. Here’s their statement:

The vast majority of our 3G customers are able to access the internet on their mobile device at speeds of up to 384 kbps or typically up to 1.3 mbps if they have an HSDPA-enabled device. The O2 network is fully HSDPA enabled and we will be further increasing the maximum speeds available on HSDPA throughout the year, up to 7.2 MBps.

Because of a provisioning error which came to our attention last week, a small proportion of our 3G customers have not been getting these higher speeds.

We apologise to those customers who were affected. The issue is simple to fix and we will be doing so this week.

Good news!