USA ROAMING NIGHTMARE on 02

[JTOM]

I been a loyal customer for o2 for over 10years, and I always loved how 02 treats their customers. Eventough they have mediocare 4G speeds in london, I was happy with what it provides. For work reasons , I recently upgraded my o2 contract to include US / EU roaming , which is now pretty standard on every other network.
The promise of o2 is fantastic appox 150 minutes and texts plus all the data you have for US use.
However , In reality, I only got to sense harsh reality when I got to the US ( San Francisco ) -Highly trottle data connections. I barely get 0.5Mbps if I am lucky. To understand how slow it is I will give an example - it would load certain webpages, but would not sent a whatsapp message, forget about pictures.
Speed tests on my colleague who is on 3 mobile , gets easy 20 Mbps average, and I (02) was on 0.5Mpbs.. seriously adsl speed!

So to understand what is happening I called up 02 . This is when I got surpriced. Their network GURU’s confirmed that 02 only have 3G connections with US carriers, and by the looks of it -that tooo highly throttled. Absolute nightmare to use. I have been unable to use WhatsApp or any apps which has/need internet connectivity at all ( Facebook, Instagram, whatsapp) - you name it. It was the most fustrating thing !! I had to keep missing important emails and messages, and keep hooked on to work/hotel Wifi’s , while being totally blind on the road when being a tourist !

I see loads of comments in 02 forums about similar situations with a load of people over the past year. I really feel that I have been mis-sold, and literally many of others might have been as well. This might be even worth checking with OFCOM as well for an investigation, as they have been advertised wrongly as well.

So people , if you are planning to travel US and want roaming LOOK elsewhere!!

[MI5]

We usually advise customers to take a Three sim if travelling to USA.

[Bambino]

@JTOM Best thing to do next time is to make sure your phone is unlocked and get a Pay & Go sim from AT&T or T-Mobile when you arrive in the US. Only way to ensure you'll get fast data speeds. You just can't call back to the UK with the US sim.

[madasaf1sh]

I would strongly advise against using 3 in the US, there speeds whilst roaming are absolutley diabolical, and worse than o2, and having used both o2. 3 and vodafone in Nevada, Hawaii, New York, Washington, NY and LAX the best network was Voda.. 

3 struggled on t-mobile

o2 on AT&T was usable 

Voda just worked at good speeds on AT&T

[MI5]

The OP's colleague was getting 20mbps on Three where they were.