O2 Travel - USA Roaming speeds

[BradTRC]

Hi all,

Looking to go to the States, but discovered about a 0.5mbps data cap. Contacted O2 to ask if this was true and they said that yes, however the data cap no longer applies to customers and that occasionally would have to slow it down temporarily but not cap it. Has anyone been to the USA in the last couple of months and used the data? If so, how was it?

Cheers,

[BradTRC]

Will do 👍 - cheers all 🍻 

[Travel_Fish]

I'm in the states at the moment and I can confirm that the data speeds are unusable. I'm stuck on edge ALL the time. It seems that O2's roaming partner, T-mobile, will not allow any more bandwidth to o2 customers. I was in a different state last week, and had the same issue. I travel to the US on a regular basis, and I can't rely on a connection that won't even allow me to open basic text websites. The moment my contract ends, I'm out. 

[Pip_S]

Just back from USA...speed stuck on E constantly, friend with EE had fast 4G or 5G. Had no idea about throttling. Very annoyed. Complained to O2....customer service advisor claimed she could not tell me if throttling was in force... I pay for a USA option but they refuse to tell me what I'm paying for? Requested escalation of this. Joke.

[madasaf1sh]

@Pip_S 

You don't pay for a US Option, you pay for a connection to a roaming partner in any country o2 have a roaming agreement they have..

o2 can only have a chat with T-Mobile or AT&T and discuss the issue, but it is upto those networks how they deal with roaming connections, and there will be a reason why the o2 and the US Networks throttle bandwidth.

The best network for US roaming is Vodafone due to their connections to the US Networks.. 

[Pip_S]

To say I don't pay for a US option is silly, O2 advertised an option of data in the USA with my tariff...so I went with it. Do you really think they reach an agreement with US networks without agreeing a service level?
If O2 said...oh here's a data option but the speed will be as good as useless, I would have went elsewhere. If they know the data is so inadequate as to be useless, then they should not advertise it as such. EE manage to provide decent speeds. I'll be cancelling O2 at the earliest opportunity, even if my monthly rate increases elsewhere.

[dde0apb]

I’m in the US at the moment (Sep 9 2022) and the phone has attached to T-Mobile and the service is next to non-existent. It’s the reason I moved to O2 (the international bolt on) and its’s abysmal. 

[dde0apb]

Me too. This is dire. And I’ve used EE in both the US and Australia and has better speeds than at home. So the “it’s up to the roaming partner” is surely nonsense. Who’d advertise a service provided by a third party without an SLA with the third party. 

[dde0apb]

Likewise

[TheBigTea]

I’m in the USA just now and it’s pathetic 

no data working at all (even though o2 says I’m using) and issues getting text and calls to work

all in all a waste of money getting a contract with roaming with O2

Ive bought a T-Mobile sim 

[Truenorf]

Same here.  Only moved to O2 because they advertised USA and Canada included in their worldwide roaming add-on.  Yet speeds are throttled so badly on all North American networks as to be unusable (I've tried 10 different cities across the USA and Canada).  Genuinely unusable for normal web pages in 2023.  This is false advertising by O2 and they've known that it's going on since at least 2018 (see other threads here).  I will be ending my contract early and moving to Vodafone.