Roaming explanation...

[Anonymous]

Morning all. New here, been an O2 customer for years and years though (BT Cellnet originally!).

Just a quick one about roaming.

I recently took a week in Germany, and before I went I researched O2's roaming policies. Friends on EE and Vodafone had add-ons which, for £1.50 per day, would allow them use of their contract benefits from abroad - that's all of the included texts, minutes, and most importantly data, when roaming anywhere in Europe.

I decided to check out O2's policy for this and was astonished that for £1.50 a day I could use only 15MB of data. Now, given how large photos and websites are getting, understandably this was gone by lunchtime each day and I had to buy additional bolt ons to carry on going.

This is where it gets more annoying. O2-UK are owned by Telefonica, as I understand it, part of the Telefonica Europe group. While I was out in Germany, I was roaming on, funnily enough, O2-DE... owned by Telefonica... part of the Telefonica Europe group...

Why? Why are there still roaming charges for two parts of the same companies network? Are they charging themselves for roaming then passing the cost onto me? I'm not understanding...!

[jonsie]

It changed a few months ago and previously the allowance was inadequate for the charge. I always prefer to use wifi personally as I begrudge paying anything for roaming. Outside Europe the prices are crippling!

[MI5]

Contract customers now get unlimited daily data allowance and all calls out of home allowance (up to 60 mins, redial after 59, with a one off 50p connection charge).

[Anonymous]

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@MI5 wrote:
Contract customers now get unlimited daily data allowance and all calls out of home allowance (up to 60 mins, redial after 59, with a one off 50p connection charge).

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O2 say "You'll only be charged £1.99 for the days that you use data in Europe.

• There's no upper usage limit on Pay Monthly, but traffic management steps apply."

What does "traffic management steps apply"  actually mean, @MI5 ?  Is that duckspeak for "if you use more than xGB data we will slow the whole thing down so that your holiday will be over  before you can download an image, a map, a mp3 tune"?

Gerry

[jonsie]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@MI5 wrote:
Contract customers now get unlimited daily data allowance and all calls out of home allowance (up to 60 mins, redial after 59, with a one off 50p connection charge).

---

O2 say "You'll only be charged £1.99 for the days that you use data in Europe.

• There's no upper usage limit on Pay Monthly, but traffic management steps apply."

What does "traffic management steps apply"  actually mean, @MI5 ?  Is that duckspeak for "if you use more than xGB data we will slow the whole thing down so that your holiday will be over  before you can download an image, a map, a mp3 tune"?

Gerry

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More or less @Anonymous ....

[MI5]

They say that after 100mb in a day, you will be slowed until the next day.....
However, we have had a few reports that data is always slow but then again some have not had any problems at all......?

[Anonymous]

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@MI5 wrote:
They say that after 100mb in a day, you will be slowed until the next day.....
However, we have had a few reports that data is always slow but then again some have not had any problems at all......?

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Thanks @MI5  -  Creative ambiguity rules as usual. 

Gerry

[Anonymous]

Because of the European changes in roaming tariffs I spent a very happy data roaming experience travelling via Paris Charles DeGaulle and two weeks in the Spanish Basque Country playing Google Ingress with no additional fees!

I was warned on arrival that excessive data use would be an issue (If you play Google Ingress, you will know it's a data and battery hog)

No additional fees!

Nice one Telefonica, well done!

[jonsie]

Good news, a change from some of the horror stories we hear

[MI5]

Indeed it is good news......
Some key facts on O2's traffic management policy here (thanks Adam)
http://www.o2.co.uk/assets2/Kana/pdf/traffic_management.pdf

[Anonymous]

Thanks @MI5   As someone famous once said:- " I am better informed but none the wiser. " 

Gerry