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