UK operator O2 has admitted limiting the speed of most of its customers’ 3G connections to 128 kbps, instead of the 384 kbps the technology is capable of, reports The Register. This is obviously bad news for content providers, since one of the main benefits of 3G for them is that the less time it takes to download their content, the more content people are likely to download—and the more often they’re likely to download mobile content. More after the jump…

It’s also a problem for O2’s 3G customers, who are naturally under the assumption that they are receiving the total benefit of the technology they are paying for. Anyway, after being chased by El Reg O2 said that “customers get the speed they ask for, and those who find themselves capped at 128Kb/sec must be on a “lower-than-normal” tariff” or it’s a mistake and they should let the telco know...which is a good way of restricting the lifting of the speed limit to those customers who read The Register. I wonder if O2 is falling victim to the problem of too many 3G users overloading network capacity? That’s no excuse, of course; if you can’t provide a service, you shouldn’t sell it. If you want a funny look at a PR mistake on this story, check out this piece.