O2 (UK) is obviously run by a bunch of muppets...

I came across this story via here, here, here and here...
O2 UK has admitted its 3G customers are limited to 128Kb/s connections, with business users being automatically upgraded to 384Kb/s if they are deemed to warrant it.
Higher speeds are possible but are apparently only issued arbitrarily to customer who warrant that speed (i.e. that pay an expensive monthly subscription).

Some O2 PR rep mistakenly called a reporter from "The Register" while still discussing how to respond to its story with a colleague. He referred to those wanting faster speeds as “a bunch of techie nerds”, and called anybody who’d want to leave the network a “muppet”...

Someone even did a speedtest on O2's network and came up with the following results:
GPRS 44kbit/sec
EDGE 145kbit/sec
3G 112kbit/sec
HSDPA 124kbit/sec
Yes, you're seeing it right, O2's EDGE service is faster than their HSDPA service. I wonder if that has anything to do with all those EDGE (but no HSDPA) iphones that O2 has sold?

This again proves my point that "conventional telco's" just do not understand the internet. They think that it is possible to squeeze internet based content through a piddly little connection that is little more than a dripping tap compared to "real" broadband such as DSL, cable, fibre, wifi & wimax.
The thing that is so very annoying about this is that there is such a huge market for proper 3G connectivity. There are lots of client devices available that can handle high bandwidth web based content and applications (N95 anyone?). And who would not want mobile broadband access on the go?
Due to tower density it could also fill in those gaps left by other connectivity methods (in rural areas and the like).
But noooooo....
128 Kb/s is what you;re going to get and if you want more you are a “techie nerd”...
Idiots!