Apparently it’s a highly compressed one. Yes, O2 (UK) gives you a compressed Internet browsing experience by compressing all the pictures you download from web pages before they get sent to your computer.

I’d heard rumors about this before. But a few days ago I came in contact with a mobile broadband user on twitter, who could not only tell me how it affects you as a user but also provide a screen shot.

Below is a example of such an Internet experience. If you click the image, you’ll get it in the original size. As you can see, the images on the page are highly compressed and compression artifacts are clearly seen.

You can argue that this is a good thing because you then get more from you download allowance, sure. But you could also argue that this is a strategy chosen by O2 to get as many users on their network.

The problem is, however, that potential customers are not told about this aggressive compression service(?) before they buy their product. O2 customer are simply not getting the same Internet as the rest of us, and that they’ll not know until they buy the product. That’s just #evil business.

And it doesn’t stop with your web browsing experience. Images in other Internet connected applications are affected as well. The aforementioned user could confirm that images in for example iTunes are compressed aggressively as well. And that there’s no way to turn it off, as this compression happens before the images even reaches you computer.

[Update] See fix here.

[Update 2] Fix for O2 iPhones.

Are you an O2 user? Share your thoughts below.