Lack of Roaming Speeds (despite paying £6 per day)!

[EBo]

Hi All!

I'm a recent convert to O2 and first-time poster, so hoping to get a little clarity on roaming... I took advantage of the Volt bundle, which came with an unlimited O2 sim and roam freely - which worked a treat in Dublin. However.....

I have just returned from Istanbul, for which I as happy to pay the extra charges (£6 per day) for roaming but the speeds were abysmal at less than 1Mbps 😱 Feels completely unfair to be charging customers for a service that O2 restrict to make near unusable and requires you to rake through the small print on the O2 website - which actually couldn't load at that speed! When I was able to check, there was still no clarity in individual countries, so am I right in thinking:

- If I'm in Europe, I should expect pretty good service as I found in Dublin or was that the exception rather than the rule?

- If I'm in a roam freely destination I should expect <1Mbps?

- If I pay £6 per day, I should also expect <1Mbps?

Unfortunately as a small business owner having my phone on goes with the territory but it does feel O2 are being economical with the truth in their marketing! As a comparison I had been to Istanbul using the old network and had no restrictions whatsoever, so it is clearly possible with other providers. 

Any help would be appreciated - thanks folks!

[Bambino]

@EBo Turkey is not part of the EU. This may help to explain it: Roaming in Turkey and Cyprus - O2 Community

[MI5 · Accepted solution]

@EBo 

Speeds are not restricted in any EU country so that is the same terms as you get at home.

However, anywhere that O2 travel is used has a speed restriction of 0.5mbps.

Mentioned in the roaming T&C's. 

8 - There’s no fixed data allowance with O2 Travel, so to manage traffic (including audio and video streaming) we limit the service to 500kbps.

https://www.o2.co.uk/termsandconditions/mobile/o2travel-paymonthly-terms-and-conditions

[EBo]

Thanks for your responses folks. Essentially it seems anywhere outside of the EU, roaming on O2 is useless regardless of whether it is a roam free destination or a paid, £6 per day country?!

Seems completely counter-intuitive to me. I'd happily pay up for a decent service (even if the restriction was at a useable speed) but I'll now be forced to get a local sim or look into an e-sim from another provider, every time I travel outside of Europe. Surely O2 must be losing revenue by making roaming so restrictive?

[MI5]

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@EBo wrote:

Thanks for your responses folks. Essentially it seems anywhere outside of the EU, roaming on O2 is useless regardless of whether it is a roam free destination or a paid, £6 per day country?!

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@EBo 

Yes, that is correct as covered in the T&C's I posted above.

[Kazuto_Kirigaya]

So, if I go the the USA, I'd only get 0.5mbps? am I right in that? I'm a new convert from EE, where I got full speed in the USA on the same sort of thing, where roaming in the USA is included, i'm on 02's 30GB Plus sim 

[MI5]

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@Kazuto_Kirigaya wrote:

So, if I go the the USA, I'd only get 0.5mbps? am I right in that?

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Correct

[Bambino]

@Kazuto_Kirigaya If you're going to be in the US for a length of time and will need data, get a Pay & Go sim from AT&T or T-Mobile. There are also many free WiFi hotspots, but you should use a VPN if you're going to avail yourself of that.