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.

[Cleoriff]

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@jonsie wrote:

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

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Nor me...which was why I was questioning the response that Toby posted.

It seems to be ok in some countries and not in others....that issue has not been clarified.

[jonsie]

If reporting issues is acted upon then that makes sense but there won't be any instant fix for those finding themselves with barely usable data. But I do hope people call to highlight the problem and O2 turn the tap open a little more.

[Cleoriff]

Agree that people with problems should report it...

At the moment though it pre-supposes that you should call BEFORE you leave the UK to check if the country you are going to gets usable data.....

The answer from O2 currently would be...'Of course it does'.... but Darrens experience was very different... a bit late then. As you say they won't have a magical switch to turn on

[darrengf]

Thanks Toby.

I was able to use all the functions on my iphone. Just slow or really slow.

This is how much testing I did, one evening I switched the phone of and only switched it on in the morning. The speed was 0.10 ul and dl.

Spoke to O2 customer care and explained to them, there are no magic switches and the Gentleman said that restrictions should start to apply from 50mb.
I advise what had happened and that it was that poor, it flattened my iPhone battery. Taking 10-15 mins to send a pic on iMessage is slower than dial up. I rem better speeds on my Nokia 3330 that used dial up to go to internet.
He said that he would refund me my Data monies back and said that he will send it off for investigation. I even said you lost out on extra revenue as I put my Payg EE sim in because I was that fed up.

He also mentioned that it's governed by request, so if I understand that, O2 set it in each country in the Eu what speed they want, which again is set wrong. I really do think that if you are roaming on a Telefonica network then you will not notice anything, but out side that, so O2 don't have to pay much data roaming charges to the other network, it's governed that bad, you just can't use it.

I never complain and always use my mobile abroad. I never complain at costs etc as I'm using it and know how much I use. But this is the first time I've ever had appalling restrictions from using a data service in Europe.
I wouldn't mind if the restrictions applied from 50mb or even 100mb, but from 0mb is unfair.

I appreciate that the gentleman said he would give me my monies back, I never asked for it at all, I just wanted my account looking into, but something is wrong here.

Thanks

[darrengf]

So. A 2nd call to customer care. Same questions regarding O2 restrictions.

Had a really nice conversation with the guy, he thought O2 travel was capped at 50mb, but when I said it is for Payg but not contract, he wasn't sure, he also didn't know of any restrictions and said he had used his phone in Ireland and speeds were fine there, which is now leading more towards Telefonica networks are ok, all others forget it.

He said that from what I've experienced, it's possible that it's throttling too much which I would agree, he did say he would pass my findings on, if he did or didn't I don't know as you never get to find out. But I can only go with my findings and in 2012, 2013 the speed restrictions wasn't there, but data restrictions was in Europe.
Now you have no data restrictions in contract, you just can't use data.


Toby regarding the statement.
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. **** The restrictions applied soon as I switched it on.

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 .
**** I couldn't get to 100mb. I struggled to get to 50mb. So that statement is rubbish. I didn't stream video or audio at all. Youtube refused to load and vine just timed out due to slowness.


Audio and video streaming are available with O2 Travel but the quality of the audio/video will be optimised for a mobile device. ****. Did try this, but kept cutting out.

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. **** Never used any of these services.


Thanks

[Toby]

HI Damien, I'll make sure your comments here are shared with the team. The advisor you spoke to would have undoubtedly done the same. I'll answer your PM soon about your specific account issue

[darrengf]

Who's Damien lol

[Toby]

Haha Darren!

Damien should be flattered

[Anonymous]

This is why, I'm leaving O2 and going to Vodafone and taking all the family contracts with me. 

I couldnt even load facebook and my friends on vodafone were watching HD TV on thier iphone 

[Anonymous]

I can say that my experiance in Spain has been no different.

I was also very happy when I read about no upper limit leave your data switched on. I often come to Spain and have had various data options in the past I have a spainish sim and normally buy data (Vodafone es) but thought this time I will just use O2 travel surely the speed restrictions won't be to much of a problem..

Very Wrong.. even though O2 travel states restrictions from 100mb I have had restrictions right from 0mb everyday especially on anything Apple releated photo stream, App Store. Speed test shows 0.2 to 0.1 up and down.. some results showing 0.04mb..

It's a network connection of the very basic variety . I wanted to update one app on the phone 16mb download (gave up after only getting to 20%) after 5 hours.. wanted to see 7 pictures on photo stream that had been uploaded took around 4 hours..

nothing that requires data is usable you can just about browse the web but the traffic shaping for everything else makes this not the offer you think it is..

Anything Apple forgot it.
Anything Video Streaming forget it.

I understand certain restriction need to be applied but an Internet connection out of the 90's isn't going to be any use to anyone.. whoever has set the limiters need to have a second look.

and battery life even on new iPhone 6 destroyed. because it is trying to download constantly .
I think sim of the country you are visiting is the only way to go unless as someone else suggested they open up the taps..
it is nice to leave data on your phone but really 90% of the features will not be usable..

O2 this was a massive selling point but you need to reassess the limiters..

**also accessing this web site out here to put this reply on load time 3-4 mins..