Roaming in the USA

[Salem874]

Is anyone familiar with roaming in the USA on an O2 SIM?

What's coverage like (which networks are used), and particularly data speeds?

I have the O2 Travel "bolt on" which does include data for a £5/day charge. Is this throttled? All information I find seems to suggest this data is "unlimited" which I find hard to believe, it must be throttled somehow. And would any data used as part of O2 travel (with the associated £5/day charge on the days any services are used) be taken from any allowance you have in the UK? How does it work exactly?

I'm heading over for about two weeks next week, so would be interested in knowing more as O2 travel didn't cover outside Europe the last time I was abroad.

[MI5 · Accepted solution]

Data is heavily throttles on o2 travel.
You are much better off with a local sim card from T Mobile or AT&T etc when you are there.

For calls and text you get 120 mins and 120 texts per day 

O2 help here https://www.o2.co.uk/shop/international/using-phone-abroad

[Salem874]

Thanks for the speedy response.

I dont envisage i'd need to use any heavy data, as i should have wifi the majority of the time while away.

Any idea to what extent (thresholds/speeds) data is throttled?

[MI5]

0.5mps usually.

[jonsie]

To answer the other part of your question, any data or other usage as part of O2 Travel does not come out of your UK allowance. 

[Salem874]

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@jonsiewrote:

To answer the other part of your question, any data or other usage as part of O2 Travel does not come out of your UK allowance. 

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Thanks, yes i did notice later that  you get 120 minutes & 120 texts. I then subsequently (i think) deleted that part of my question.

[Salem874]

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@MI5wrote:
0.5mps usually.

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Right, so not exactly 3G. good to know though

[MI5]

Not even close mate!

[iphone4sir]

I’ll be in the states in a couple of weeks and will be using a local sim too - a shame as I don’t mind spending the £5 if it was any use. I used it in Thailand recently and whilst speeds where slow I was actually able To manage to upload to Facebook etc without major issues.

[Cleoriff]

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@iphone4sirwrote:
I’ll be in the states in a couple of weeks and will be using a local sim too - a shame as I don’t mind spending the £5 if it was any use. I used it in Thailand recently and whilst speeds where slow I was actually able To manage to upload to Facebook etc without major issues.

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@jonsiewho lives in Thailand now, uses a local sim and network and I believe he gets excellent 4G speeds @iphone4sir