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

[darrengf]

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.

 

 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

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 

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.

[MI5]

Germany and Czech Republic - Both owned by Telefonica.....

[Cleoriff]

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@MI5 wrote:
Germany and Czech Republic - Both owned by Telefonica.....

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NOW I understand  your statment about the pattern emerging .

It seems that  the only 'research we need to do' is to check whether the country we want to travel to has a network owned by Telefonica!...:smileysad:

[MI5]

That's true from the evidence seen so far and it also makes sense....
Three do free roaming in 16 countries but it's only countries where the parent company owns a network in....

[jonsie]

Shocking findings to be honest. I'm hoping to go to Berlin before I'm off to Thailand so it looks like I'll have no problem there.

[darrengf]

Thanks for all your comments. Yes it does seem funny regarding the speed restrictions I have to be honest. I used a iPhone 5s on my travels and I know the phone works perfectly while in the uk.

I always do loads of research before going as well as I really enjoy writing reviews as most of you know I've done a few on here.

I first noticed the speed restriction was sat on p&o ferry on way to Calais. My phone picked up Bouygues about half way. With ok 3G coverage. This was then I saw the speed go to nothing. I though oh it will be because I'm sat on ferry and all the metal round me, so thought nothing more. But even getting of the boat I thought, ok May be because I'm in France, I'll wait until I get to Belgium. That's when I thought mmmm this is the same.

One thing that will make you laugh is that O2 has poor to no 3G coverage round Dover harbour, My phone did pick up O2-GPRS. French networks do have 3G coverage at Dover lol.
It's been like this as long as I've been going to Dover in the last few years. I thought by now O2 would have great coverage at Dover docks. But even there own coverage map shows it's still GPRS.


I forgot to say. The following networks I used while red away

France
Orange-F
Bouygues

Belgium
Base
Proximus
Mobistar would not work at all.

Netherlands
KPN

[Toby]

Hi guys,

I asked for the some info and have the below. Hopefully it helps in future.

This is from part 2 of the O2 Travel Data Service section of the site:

There's no fixed data allowance with O2 Travel, but we'll slow down the service if you reach an assumed fair usage amount in order to manage traffic on the network. This will be more than 100MB of general data or more than 50MB of streamed video or audio data (the "assumed fair usage amounts") in a day . Audio and video streaming are available with O2 Travel but the quality of the audio/video will be optimised for a mobile device. The speed available for file transfer, online gaming, peer to peer downloads and network back-up services is restricted and may not work with O2 Travel. 

If you notice any kind of restrictive behaviour when abroad, please call +443448090202  for free.

[Cleoriff]

Thanks for that info @Toby  but that really doesn't explain why darren could not LOAD pages. I think his problem was that the allowance seemed fair...if only he could have attempted to use it...

Also, unless I am missing something...it seems that in some countries there is no problem at all...network dependent?

 I use Movistar in Spain...and have no problem whatsoever?

[MI5]

It would be worth calling next time if the problem is repeated

"If you notice any kind of restrictive behaviour when abroad, please call +443448090202  for free."

[jonsie]

I'm not sure thre is some magical switch on each account to speed up data....

[MI5]

I assume the purpose of making the call is for o2 to track/assess usage?