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Review on O2 Travel in France, Belgium, Netherlands (Speed Restrictions shocking)

darrengf
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So I thought I would do a new Review on the new O2 travel when I went  to Belgium, France and Netherlands last week.

 

When I first saw that O2 had removed the 15mb allowance for Europe, I was really excited and thought I’m now able to use my phone much better over in the EU.

 

However I have to be honest and say I was extremely disappointed to say the least. Infact I was shocked how badly O2 have got it.

 

So I will explain. £1.99 for unlimited Data (I’m on contract) per day is great value for money. I understand that after 100mb further restrictions apply and that speed restrictions are in place when you are in the EU from the word dot. However this is where the problem lies, the restrictions are that bad and I really dread to think what it’s like when you hit 100mb of Data, because I couldn’t get near it. Not even after Hours and Hours of use.

 

These are the speeds I was getting, No mater what time of day or Network on. I know the networks shown were just in Belgium, However I can tell you that in France it was the same and the Netherlands failed to work at all it was that bad.

Capture.JPG

 Capture1.JPG

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 So for Example.

 

Send or Receive Pictures over iMessage would take 10-15 Mins.

Using Twitter, would take 10-20 seconds per image to view, and just refused to load some altogether.

Youtube or Vine Videos, didn’t work at all

Apple Maps would load, However Google Maps couldn’t keep up with Data and just timed out, or showed blank screen with a Moving Dot.

Face Time, did work for a couple of seconds, but on many occasions wouldn’t even connect, Face Time audio did connect once, and then failed.

Using the internet to browse was painfully slow, or just didn’t work at all. Searching on Google would take average 5-15 seconds to load a search page.

Sending normal MMS and being charged 40p (Like lightning)

 

1st day I managed 63.08Mb, however this is with charging my iPhone up twice and using it most of the day

2nd day I managed 68.11Mb. All Day usage. Again had to charge iPhone up at the end

3rd day I managed 69.88 Mb. Again All Day usage and iPhone had to be charged.

 

The Reason for the phone going flat was that sending any pics over iMessage took that long it just drained the phone because of the speed, also using the general internet again drained the phone.

 

I was in Europe for longer than 3 days, but after the 3rd day, I couldn’t cope with it anymore, so I put my EE PAYG sim in and paid £5 per 100mb per day. Cost me more but the speeds were normal 3G speeds and in France I got 4G Speeds. I also never had to charge the phone once during the day as everything worked great.

 

So this was the average speeds I got with my EE PAYG sim in Belgium, France was much faster at 20Mb + on 4G

Capture3.JPG

 

 

So O2 lost out because of their ridicules speed restraints. whoever decided the speed restrications needs to spend time in EU and use them like I did. I totally understand restricting it after 100Mb, or even restricting it to 1Mbps download for first 100Mbs, but please, let me get there in the first place. I can’t fault O2 for O2 travel, it’s just a shame it’s that restricted it’s not useable any more.

 

I wonder if this what the EU had in mind? Looks great on Paper, just in real life is useless!

 

Something that was so good has been made so bad to use slight_frown

 

I know people will be saying, well you used 60+ Mb each day, Yes I dont disagree with that, but this is from 8am to 11pm of use on 2 days and on 1 day it was even later. I dont mind paying for any Service, But please please let me able to use it for a little before you put restrictions in place.

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Use iPhone XS Max dual sim, SE, Honor 10, IPad Pro 11, Apple Watch 4 LTE, 100+ Mpbs Barrier and a Record Player.

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Cleoriff
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Just a query...wouldn't you be better to use a local sim in your phone (if it unlocked of course?)

I have a friend who spends half her time in Spain and the rest in the UK. She used to have two phones...but now she just swaps sims..... dependent on where she is? She saves a lot of money that way...

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Anonymous
Not applicable

I doubt its a congestion problem. A couple of months ago I got an iPad from the office which has a Movistar data SIM in it (3G, not 4G) and on it feeds and web pages loaded as you'd expect from a 3G connection.

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Cleoriff
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Well at least you can see your iPad works well with a local sim. Maybe that is the way forward for the iPhone?

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MI5
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Anyone roaming on the same network will have slower speeds regardless as the priority will be given to home users.
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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jonsie
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@MI5 wrote:
Anyone roaming on the same network will have slower speeds regardless as the priority will be given to home users.

As it should be in fairness. One reason I have a local sim when travelling. 

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MI5
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Same with the MVNO's in the UK like Tesco and gg on O2. They always get less bandwidth than someone on an O2 contract.
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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darrengf
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@MI5 wrote:
Same with the MVNO's in the UK like Tesco and gg on O2. They always get less bandwidth than someone on an O2 contract.


Good evening to you all.

 

ive been doing some more testing in Europe and just spent some quality holiday time in luxemburg and Germany.  2 amazing countries I have to say. The Wine Tasting event was amazing. 😜

 

so in luxemburg I was able to roam on all 3 networks which I have to say have amazing 2G, 3G and 4G coverage. Obviously O2 has no 4G roaming partners but none the less coverage is superb. .

 

i can confirm that speed is restricted from the word dot, as I've also said. Proving it is easy. On all the networks I get 0.33Mbps up and 0.31 down. This was at any time of day or night, in the city to the country side.  Congestion is not an issue in Luxemburg. Trust me. Unless sheep and cows also use mobile phones.  Speed was the same on both 2G and 3G. As I we was next to the German Border most of the time and also spent time in Germany, I used roaming there.  Speed was the same as in luxemburg, but o2 DE coverage was no where as good and to be honest, it's just like UK. More on gprs or edge.  3G in towns and cities, but out in country side and it drops.  Other networks did have 3G.

 

so I've traveled to France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Dublin and now Luxemburg. And every country has roughly the same speed on all networks. 0.33 up or there abouts to 0.31 down. Some are worse, none are better.

so I can confirm its not congestion.

 

Couple of points to note.

 

i also took EE Payg sim Three Contract and a Vodafone Payg Sim

 

EE speeds were better and I got 4G. But they were not like 4G or 3G speeds at home, but they were faster.

 

vodafone was a confused one.  I have a 3G payg and refuse to pay for 4G. But when in France I was able to connect to 4G there. 

I can confirm that on Vodafone, speeds were not restricted and was blazing fast. It was like browsing on 4G at home. 

 

Three in France as I get free data there, 

using it or Orange France and Free France networks were utterly useless to say the least.  I got more page can't be displayed than anything.

using Bouygeus network was a different thing. Speeds were impressive and I was getting on average 4-6 Mbps on 3G all the time.

 

 

I also traveled through the channel tunnel.

 

o2, Vodafone and EE all have 2G, 3G and 4G. Three had nothing and would not connect as well to EE as a roaming partner.

 

Speeds in the tunnel on O2 were always about 16Mbps up and 3.50 down on 4G.

9Mps up and 1.80 down on 3G

i didn't test Vodafone as I had no UK Data left. 

 

EE speeds were always Double of O2 on 4G every time. Topping 30+ Mbps up and 7+ Mbps down.

EE 3G speeds however failed to run.  I tried it on 5 occasions and the test failed everytime.  4G always worked but 3G didn't.

 

hope the above is helpful and as always I'll update with more when I have it.

 

 

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Use iPhone XS Max dual sim, SE, Honor 10, IPad Pro 11, Apple Watch 4 LTE, 100+ Mpbs Barrier and a Record Player.

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Cleoriff
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Thanks for that info @darrengf

I have an Orange ES payg mobile broadband sim for my netbook which I used whilst in Spain. (before I got WiFi in my apartment.) It was actually ok...but not excellent. Though  that may have been more due to lack of capability of the netbook itself.

I rarely turn mobile data on in Spain now as there is so much WiFi everywhere...but when I do ...using my O2 sim connected to Movistar, it is as good as in the UK. 3G only

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MI5
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I did find OrangeF a little slow but had no problems on Sfr recently.
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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darrengf
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May be in some parts of Spain may be different or you are extremely lucky. I know from speaking with people who has been to Spain and again I'm one of them. Speed is like all other EU countries I've mentioned. 

 

If if you can do a speed test when you are out there, maybe we can ask O2 why yours is good but everyone else's isn't? 

 

Ive found using Apple maps, Twitter and general browsing is acceptable,  send pics through apple iMessage is slow and painful on many occasions.

 

free wifi in Germany is none extinct. Every where I've been there hasn't been any, unless you are a Germany network customer.

 

my hotel in luxemburg in the valley had superb fibre wifi. Blazing fast no matter what and free, but no free wifi in town.

 

Little free wifi in Belgium,  was more hotels. 

 

france was better with some free wifi, in malls, and out and about. Easy to use and also noticed straight away I was English, so displayed the English page for me to connect. So top marks for them.

 

greece when I went had lots of free wifi. So never had a issue there.

 

i didn't look in Dublin as didn't get Time

Need Help, Just ask. We are one big Family here in the o2 Forum.
Use iPhone XS Max dual sim, SE, Honor 10, IPad Pro 11, Apple Watch 4 LTE, 100+ Mpbs Barrier and a Record Player.

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