Poor mobile data speed on roaming

[Petrh]

Hi

I am abroad, czech republic, connected over 4G and I am having issues with speed. Results on speed tests are showing it is limited to 0.3mbps which is absolutely unusable for any work. Barely managing sending simple messages.

especially for £80pm I am losing patience.

is EE limiting the speed on internet over roaming?

[Northerner]

Hi @Petrh 

You are not on EE network. Try manual changing carrier under network settings.

Ultimately EE are not responsible for networks abroad. 

Thanks

[Petrh]

Restarting device helped to increase the speed

[Amirightorami]

@Northerner you're right but no cigar. You are not on an EE network. However, EE have negotiated with global telco to secure speeds through other international networks. The one you are on will be throttled back and there's nothing you can do... Your EE SIM has a unique fixed IP address which identifies it as belonging to EE. Poor show for the consumer when EE aren't up front about this... yes, you can have roaming but at a speed that you'd never accept domestically

[N1kkx]

I have experienced the same problem in many other Countries with EE. I also have an Italian contract phone so when I do a speed test with 2 identical iPhone 12's in the same place in Italy, one on TIM and one on EE using TIM the difference is shocking. Considering the money we pay for this service it really is not good enough.

My contract is now up for renewal so I plan to change provider to someone who at least gives me a decent download speed when Im abroad. Does anyone know how I can go about finding such a provider?

[Kirigaya_Kazuto]

Like many other networks, TIM will be prioritizing their paying customers first, EE do the same in the UK for other people roaming on them in the UK - paying customers come first

From the perspective of TIM, they'll think "ah, great a holiday maker that doesn't pay us, due to (former) EU Law, we still have to allow access, just limit the speed so our customers don't suffer" 

[N1kkx]

So, reading between the lines of your reply you believe that there isnt an agreement between TIM and EE but rather TIM are 'forced' by former EE law to provide this roaming data service for 'free' and TIM therefore control the data download speed rather than it being a paid for service charged back to EE for an agreed level of service? If true then there will be no difference with any other UK provider?

[theturbulence]

Exact same is happening to me in Pisa, Italy. Literally barely works. I go on Google Maps and does not even load anything, took 2 full minutes to search restaurants near. This roaming stuff needs to be sorted properly, some crazy corruption and politics happening.

[Katie_B]

Hello @theturbulence. 

Welcome to the community. 

Have you tried manually selecting another available network?

Katie

[theturbulence]

hey Katie, yes I have. I played around with some common big ones other than what it defaulted to which was TIM. Please get this sorted I don’t know where to escape with this one. EE is supposed to be the big one, you would expect roaming would work properly. I literally essentially got stuck as my google maps didn’t work, the situation is proper bad. Am I gonna have to take sim cards out in Europe like when I do when I travel far east? Please run your independent analysis and analyse the data if possible.