No data whilst roaming in the USA!!!

[Technojock]

Travel Inclusive Zone Bolt On
No data!

[Cleoriff]

So best thing is to use a local sim. T Mobile or AT&T.....

[jonsie]

It's quite disgusting in this day and age that you can't use data in the USA if you are with O2.

[mikewmartin]

Can the O2 rep on here confirm (or deny) that O2’s Travel Inclusive is still capped at 500K bits/sec when roaming outside O2’s Europe Zone. For example when roaming in the USA. If so that means O2 customers get heavily restricted internet use. Text only websites will be OK, but websites with maps, images, photos (& there are lots of them needed for travellers) will be of limited use. Plus Youtube & videos will be unusable.

[Bambino]

@Chris_K can you please respond to @mikewmartin's query?

[Chris_K]

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@mikewmartin wrote:

Can the O2 rep on here confirm (or deny) that O2’s Travel Inclusive is still capped at 500K bits/sec when roaming outside O2’s Europe Zone. For example when roaming in the USA. If so that means O2 customers get heavily restricted internet use. Text only websites will be OK, but websites with maps, images, photos (& there are lots of them needed for travellers) will be of limited use. Plus Youtube & videos will be unusable.

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I can confirm this is the case. I've included an exert below from our O2 Travel T&C's:

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

With this speed limit, services like Netflix are unfortunately likely out of the question as they use a lot of data (and as per above, as we have no fixed data allowance, we manage traffic by limiting the speed). Services like Maps etc should still work fine, though a couple of notes on this:

• From looking around, I've seen suggestions that Maps on average uses only around 2.19MB of data for every hour you're on the road - so a 500kbps limit is unlikely to impact your ability to use such service
• You may also want to consider downloading locations you're visiting for offline use which would further reduce reliance on speeds

[mikewmartin]

Thank you Chris_K.  A have a couple of comments.

1) This speed restriction is of great significance to any O2 traveller. As not only are all streaming services unusable, so are all online gaming services, and probably all internet videos (like Youtube), including Whatsapp videos, and even Whatsapp photos will be exceptionally slow (as a 2M Byte photo will take 40 secs to download at 500Kbits/sec i.e. 50KBytes/sec).

2) Thus, due to its importance, the speed restriction needs to be given much greater visibility, rather than stuck away in the small print of T&Cs.  I spend ages searching O2 help pages and never found the information. Can you try to get the information onto one of the help pages for Travel Inclusive, please.

3) Even then, the T&Cs text is ambiguous IMHO. “Capped” can either mean Top cap (namely the maximum speed you will be allowed), or a bottom cap (the lowest speed you can expect, but at times get a lot higher speed). I suspect it will be the former, but even your own UK based Customer Service people told me this afternoon it is bound to be the latter. Can you say definitely which it is?

4) Given the confusion that exists, can you try to get the word in the T&Cs ammended so the exact restriction is clear. Plus make sure the exact restriction is clear in updated Help pages.

[BradTRC]

@Chris_K 

[JGRdisappointed]

I agree with this comment entirely.  Abysmal customer service from O2 in this regard.  I visit the USA frequently and when I realised how bad the data service, is even on 5G,  I contacted O2 customer service asking what was the problem.  They blamed my iPhone 13 initially.  I had Apple check it and it was fine.  Contacted O2 again and this time they said I had been issued with the wrong sim card.  I waited for a replacement and this had no effect.  At no time did Customer Services tell me the reason for the slow data was due to their policy.  Google Maps takes an age to upload,  I can compare my data access coverage with 3 network users and recently with several Dutch cell phone users.  They load pages in seconds.  My loads pages in almost a minute.  I can no longer afford the time or frustration wasted in staying with O2 for USA use.

[pgn]

O2 Customer Service has been somewhat hit-and-miss since their Support operations were combined with those of Virgin Media after the merger some time back. Also, keeping abreast of changes to US cellular networks is a challenge for any Telco or operator, as this announcement last month indicates:

Calling from the USA

From 2023, you’ll be unable to use your UK mobile phone to make regular calls when visiting the USA because of changes to their mobile networks. However, you’ll be able to use your phone to make calls using the 4G network – provided you have a compatible phone.

Follow the steps listed here to check whether your phone is compatible, or you can find a list of compatible devices if you go here and click the link shown in the screenshot below the most up-to-date compatibility list.

If the device you have isn't compatible with 4G roaming, then you will be unable to make and receive calls when you're roaming in the USA. This down to USA network technology changes rather than anything on our side, or that O2 is in control of.

Check out which other UK carriers are also advising as above before you jump network, @JGRdisappointed - and purchase a local US SIM for your data needs, easily available in the USA (easier than some other countries, at any rate). Good luck!