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O2 EU Roaming versus, Vodafone, Three, Asda, BT and Tesco. Dublin 13th July 2017

darrengf
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As you know one of my bug bearers with O2 is currently there Roaming in the EU which we all know that they throttle.

On the 15th June 2017, EU made changes that all the EU networks had to offer cross roaming free of charge, so you can use your own allowance in one of the Roaming EU countries.

 

Now I wanted to give it a Month to settle in before I did any testing to ensure that every network was complaint and that all the issues were sorted out.

 

So, on the 13th July, I went on a day visit to Dublin with 2 of my friends and a few Devices / Sim cards from different UK networks to do some testing and obviously a bit of eating and drinking too.

 

Now the test was not totally about speed, but about what was on offer from each network and how they all compared.

 

I took the following with me

O2 Contract                        iPhone 7+ Cat 9 Device Capable of 450Mbps DL

O2 PAYG                            iPhone 6+ Cat 6 Device Capable of 300Mbps DL

Three Contract                    iPhone 6 Cat 4 Device Capable of 150Mbps DL

Vodafone Contract             WileyFox Swift 2 Cat 4 Capable of 150Mpbs DL (Dual Sim Phone)

Tesco PAYG                      Wileyfox Swift 2 Cat 4 Capable of 150Mbps DL (Dual Sim Phone)

BT Mobile Contract            Wileyfox Swift 1 Cat 4 Capable of 150Mbps DL (Dual Sim Phone)

Asda PAYG                       Wileyfox Swift 1 Cat 4 Capable of 150Mbps DL (Dual Sim Phone)

 

 

1st Test Manchester Airport Terminal 3 (7AM) (Main networks only tested)

O2 Contract        4G Signal              8.52Mbps Down, 7.19Mbps Up

Three Contact     3G Signal              Data did not work for 2 Hours being in airport

Vodafone            4G Signal              15.96Mbps Down, 10.44Mbps up

BT Mobile           4G Signal              4.81Mbps Down, 8.54Mbps up

Winner at Airport:                           Vodafone,           2nd O2 Contract

 

 

2nd Test Dublin Airport Terminal 1 (9AM) (Only had time to run Main Network Tests)

O2 Contract        3G Only                0.25Mbps Down, 0.30Mbps Up

Three                  3G Only                7.46Mbps Down, 1.07Mbps Up

Vodafone            3G                        6.07Mbps Down, 3.93Mbps Up

BT Mobile           3G                        3.16Mbps Down, 1.64 Up

Winner at Dublin Airport:                Three,                   2nd Vodafone

 

 

3rd Test Centre of Dublin O’Connell Street (10.30AM)

O2 Contract        3G Only                 0.49Mbps Down, 0.58Mbps Up

O2 PAYG            3G Only                1.84Mbps Down, 0.44Mbps Up

Three                  3G Only                7.46Mbps Down, 1.07Mbps Up

Vodafone            4G                        26.30Mbps Down, 11.01Mbps Up

Tesco PAYG      3G Only                 2.09Mbps Down, 1.12Mbps Up

BT Mobile           3G                         4.59Mbps Down, 1.21Mbps Up

Asda Mobile       3G                         3.89Mbps Down, 0.46Mbps Up

Winner on O’Connell Street:           Vodafone,          2nd Three

 

 

4Th Test was done in the ILAC Shopping Centre in Dublin Centre (12 Noon)

O2 Contract        3G Only                0.50Mbps Down, 0.49Mbps Up

O2 PAYG            3G Only                4.44Mbps Down, 1.43Mbps Up

Three                  3G Only                0.86Mbps Down, 0.41Mbps Up

Vodafone            4G                         43.73Mbps Down, 26.74Mbps Up

Tesco PAYG       3G Only                2.25Mbps Down, 0.83Mbps Up

BT Mobile           4G                         13.56Mbps Down, 23.91Mbps Up

Asda Mobile       4G                          26.68Mbps Down, 21.70Mbps Up

Winner in ILAN Centre:                   Vodafone,          2nd Place Asda

 

 

5th Test was done in Burger King Centre of Dublin (2.40PM)

O2 Contract        3G Only                0.51Mbps Down, 1.04Mbps Up

O2 PAYG            3G Only                0.91Mbps Down, 0.18Mbps Up

Three                  3G Only                7.41Mbps Down, 0.35Mbps Up

Vodafone            4G                        16.66Mbps Down, 14.45Mbps Up

Tesco PAYG      3G Only                5.65Mbps Down, 0.64Mbps Up

BT Mobile           3G                        19.05Mbps Down, 3.53Mbps Up

Asda Mobile       3G                         9.16Mbps Down, 0.27Mbps Up

Winner in ILAN Centre:                  BT Mobile (3G), 2nd Place Vodafone (4G)

 

 

6th Test was done on the River Bank in Dublin Centre. Only 3 Tests ran (4.20PM)

O2 Contract        3G Only                0.57Mbps Down, 0.42Mbps Up

Three                  3G Only                0.52Mbps Down, 0.29Mbps Up

Vodafone            4G                        121.07 Down, 26.95 Up

Winner:                Vodafone, I’m not even awarding a 2nd Place as no network deserved it.

 

 

7th Place Was done at International Banking Centre Dublin (5.40PM)

O2 Contract          3G Only                 0.58Mbps Down, 1.01Mbps Up

O2 PAYG              3G Only                6.76Mbps Down, 1.10Mbps Up

Three                    3G Only                0.30Mbps Down, 0.35Mbps Up

Vodafone              3G                         2.70Mbps Down, 3.03Mbps Up

Tesco PAYG        3G Only                 1.46Mbps Down, 0.96Mbps Up

BT Mobile             4G                         1.16Mbps Down, 10.40Mbps Up

Asda Mobile         3G                         1.82Mbps Down, 0.23Mbps Up

Winner Int Bank Centre:                      O2 PAYG,            2nd Place Vodafone

 

 

8th and Final Test Dublin Airport at Gate waiting to Board Aircraft (8PM)

O2 Contract         3G Only                0.57Mbps Down, 0.56Mbps Up

O2 PAYG             3G Only                3.90Mbps Down, 1.12Mbps Up

Three                    3G Only                0.42Mbps Down, 0.35Mbps Up

Vodafone              4G                         26.22Mbps Down, 2.95Mbps Up

Tesco PAYG        3G Only                 0.08Mbps Down, 0.54Mbps Up

BT Mobile             3G                         1.72Mbps Down, 0.34Mbps Up

Asda Mobile         3G                          0.23Mbps Down, 00.07Mbps Up

Winner in ILAN Centre:                      Vodafone,          2nd Place O2 PAYG Just

 

 

Findings

 

O2 Contract is throttled beyond believe. You could see the phone trying its hardest and on many occasions starting the speed test I was getting 10+ Mbps, however throttling kicked in and it went straight to 0.50 mostly. I’m appalled that it’s still throttled badly and its shocking that 4G is still not available. What I can tell you though is that 4G is trying to Activate on O2, but it forces your phone back to 3G. before it would say Network Failure, now it says Network Registered, but would revert to 3G. so O2 need to just put a tick in a box, unlock 4G please and also remove the blasting throttling that your killing us with. Also, O2 Contract is throttled, but not PAYG, what is wrong with O2.

 

O2 PAYG was not throttled as I could see and speeds varied over Dublin. The main problem is that it would not clamp onto 4G no matter how hard I tried, I was able to connect to Metor and Three, however there wasn’t much difference in them both, the phone would always revert back to Three as its preferred network.

 

Three Contract, Wow this was all over the place, no data in Manchester and although it didn’t look throttled in Dublin itself, speeds were very hit and miss. The main problem is that Three latches onto its home Three IE network and just doesn’t really let go, Three IE seems somewhat hit and miss and I think that most of the masts are just congested.

 

BT Mobile, put in a good performance but couldn’t clamp onto 4G much, which was the same as Asda Mobile. The main reason is there network of choice which again is Three IE. Data rates were all over the place. Lots of places were just congested, but no data restrictions were in place for what I could see

 

Asda Mobile were the same as BT Mobile. No restrictions but struggled on the preferred network which again was Three IE. Shame really as was impressed that a Supermarket PAYG got 4G overseas.

 

Tesco’s was just hampered with the lack of no 4G. It was never no clear winner, but there wasn’t a restriction in place which is good for a Supermarket Network.

 

Clear Winner has to be Vodafone. No matter how you look at it, it just won from the word go. It was pretty solid all over on 4G, just reverted to 3G in shops etc, but the 121Mbps download on 4G just shows that they have truly meant what they said and no restrictions at all. The choice of network was Vodafone IE which clearly showed that they have spent money in the network in the city and I’ve no doubt that If the sim card was in my iPhone 7+, the data would have been much higher

 

Position                UK Network           3G/4G in EU        EU Network used 

1st Place               Vodafone          (4G and 3G)     (Vodafone IE)

2nd Place              BT Mobile           (4G and 3G)      (Three IE and Metor)

3rd Place               Asda                   (4G and 3G)      (Three IE and Metor)

4th Place               O2 PAYG            (3G Only)          (Three IE and Metor)

5th Place               Three                  (3G Only)           (Three IE) (No Data in MCR Airport Data all over place)

6th Place               O2 Contract        (3G Only)           (Three IE and Metor) (Throttled)

 

I really do hope you enjoyed reading this. O2 Please please please, enable 4G roaming and stop Throttling, its making you look like cheap skates and bad as a network for over seas.

And what are you throttling only O2 Contract customers?

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chelynnah
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Hi, I'm new to posting but have been following this thread for a while now.  I have just landed in Stockholm and have 3G with Telenor SE.  I'm on an O2 Business contract.  My results are pretty good, not too far off what I get back home on 4g if I'm honest.  Just the smallest bit of lag at the end of uploading a photo.  But we'll see how that holds up over the week.

 

next week I'm at Disneyland Paris for 5 nights.  It's a notorious area for poor mobile reception no matter what the network.  With 3 in early June (which is usually good elsewhere I've travelled) it was practically nonexistent.  

 

I'll update my experience in Sweden (travelling to Örebro) and will update again from DLP if it's of any help to anyone

 

Toucj wood this is much better than I was hoping for

 

IMG_5399.PNG

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jonsie
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Thanks for posting your results, they appear to be very good but as you say, Disneyland will certainly be a good test. 

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darrengf
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Ok so i wanted to give an update to everyone regarding o2 and the roaming.

 

So I was in Ireland yesterday and was able to use my phone with our any hitches on Three Ireland (Old O2 network)

 

I used a total of 596MB roaming data, few sms and no calls.

However everything worked with out a hitch on the Three Network (Old O2)

 

Now if you havnt noticed already Ive mentioned a hitch on the old o2 network. So this is what i noticed while I'm there.

 

There are 3 Main networks

 

Vodafone

Eir (New Name for Meotor

Three

There is also another one, which is Three. as this hasn't been truly intergrated into three

 

So you phone will still see 4 Networks in ireland, even though official there are only 3 networks.

 

I noticed that If I was on Three (Old O2) my phone worked with out issues.

Three (Old o2) I was able to connect to 2G and 3G, and data was at speed as shown on previous pictures.

 

Three ie (Three Ireland) again worked ok, However the phone woul always revert to Three (Old o2)

 

Eir I was able to briefly sms and use data, but it wasn't great and the phone went back to three (Old o2) as fast as it could.  Also I wasn't able to use any Data on Eir in Dublin Airport, It refused saying no data network connected (Even though it showed 3G)

 

Vodafone Ireland connected again fine and everything work. However It worked at the old restricted speed.  It refused to go above 0.49Mbs which is what was currently the restriction in place.  I tried a number of places a to no avail. Same speed even though you could see the needle wanting to go higher.

 

 

So My conclusion is as followed (And i may be wrong)

 

O2 yes has removed the restriction, but I think its been removed for the roaming prefered network only.

So for Ireland this is Three.

Eir and Vodafone are not a prefered network, but you can get basics from them in case you need to for emergency.

 

4G has not been switched on,  I tried to force a Andorid device on all the 4G Irish networks and all failed.  O2 did connect to all the Irish networks, but couldn't wait to get back to Three.  You could see it tried so hard to go back.

 

 

So i think that when you go overseas, you ill get better Data speeds, but only on a prefere roaming network.

 

So I beleive that this will be the list that I understand i as follows

 

Ireland : Three

France : Orange and Possible Bouyages

Spain: Movistar

Germany : O2 DE (Old E-Plus as well)

Greece: Cosmote or Wind (Couldn't rem which one)

Sweeden: Telenor

 

I did use to have a list of Prefered Roaming partners but not use what Ive done with it.

 

So I hope all the above makes sense and it makes sense to me some what, I didnt take a Tescos sim with me as I would have tested the speed on Tescos Sim with Vodafone Ireland, but I go to Ireland often, so next time I'm there wil def take one and try it.

 

Any way 596Mb of roaming in a full day on Three (Old O2) in Ireland, was great and it was superb not to have to keep messing and using a number of devices.

 

My Vodafone Uk Sim that roaming on Vodafone ireland was still the champion, 4G super fast speeds, But it was nice to see o2 working as it should on 3G, now can we just have 4G and Ill be happier lol

 

Never want much, oh no I wasn't bared fro roaming lol.  

 

Thanks to @chelynnah as well for the update in Sweden.  I've updated this one a prefered roaming Euro network for o2. 

 

@MercedesS@Marjo. But any Chance you don't happen or could get a prefered EU roaming list.  There used to be one and other networks have there own preferences too, like Vodafone will prefer to roam on there networks etc.

 

i know o2 have Partner Networks, but there are also Prefered networks too.

 

just so it can be really helpful for us and people when they ask for help, we can see if there on a prefered network.  Great customer care 👍😄

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MercedesS
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Hello @darrengf, we will check for you thumbsup

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MI5
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Add Orange Slovakia too.
I'll check Austria and Belgium on way back home in a couple of days time.
I have no affiliation whatsoever with O2 or any subsidiary companies. Comments posted are entirely of my own opinion. This is not Customer Service so we are unable to help with account specific issues.

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chelynnah
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Ok so am now in Örebro and the network has changed to SWEDEN.  Here's the info

 

IMG_5400.PNG

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darrengf
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@chelynnah  no idea what network that is.

 

its possible a joint network in certain areas,  but that's a new one on me.

 

here is the list of networks in Sweden

 

3
Tele2
Telenor
Telia

 

does any one else know

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madasaf1sh
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from memory, i think Sweden can show for telenor or tele2 as they cover Scandinavian countries, and provide seamless roaming.

Im travelling to Poland and Germany next week, so will test slight_smile
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GJD
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@madasaf1sh wrote:
Im travelling to Poland and Germany next week, so will test slight_smile

Great that you'll be able to do some Germany tests. O2-DE was pitiful for roaming (with an O2-UK SIM) in July. It has appalling coverage in Germany, and particularly in Bavaria:

https://opensignal.com/networks (Search "Germany", view map and then switch between the different networks).

Next time I go to Germany, unless there are numerous reports of actual usable mobile data, I'll probably have to take another PAYG SIM -- and certainly if O2-DE is O2's "preferred network" over there! One day I was only able to squeeze 600KB of data down the pipe in the 24 hours; i.e. couldn't use data at all ...

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chelynnah
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@darrengf wrote:

@chelynnah  no idea what network that is.

 

its possible a joint network in certain areas,  but that's a new one on me.

 

here is the list of networks in Sweden

 

3
Tele2
Telenor
Telia

 

does any one else know


It shows as SWEDEN in all caps and sometime Sweden SE. 

 

I'm a bit out in the sticks outside of town where even local reception is patchy, so It's switching between edge and 3G.  Even on the edge connection I'm getting decent speeds for FB (icluding photos).  On edge back in the UK I can never open anything.  I haven't tried to upload anything on it though.

 

so overall it seems even rural areas are being covered ok.

 

I'll check back in next week with results from Disneyland Paris.  It definitely can't be much worse than 3 was in June.

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