UK IP Address While Roaming

[JosephDuffy]

I'm current roaming but my IP address shows as a UK IP address owned by EE when I check it on various IP-checking websites.

This is a bit of a pain when accessing local websites that assume location by IP address, but it also seems to be causing the data to be very slow. Even on 4g I top out around 4mbps and have pings of 200ms+ to the UK and 300ms+ to a server that is only a few miles away.

All of this makes me think that my mobile data traffic is being proxied through an EE server in the UK, leading to a degraded service. Is this the case? If so, can I opt of this?

[Chris_B]

@JosephDuffy  Your using a roaming network and the speed you are getting will depend on what agreement EE and that roaming network have with each other.  Have you just tried restarting the device?  

[JosephDuffy]

I've restarted the device, tried manually selecting networks to test different carriers, and tried using automatic.

I can understand having a slower speed due to agreements with the local carriers (plus no 5g, general variability meaning I just got unlucky, etc.). Perhaps the same could explain the higher than expected pings too.

Even allowing for variance getting a better ping to UK servers compared to ones less than 10 miles away and always getting a UK EE IP address points to the traffic being routed through the UK?

[Chris_B]

@JosephDuffy  Your phone will always been connected through to EE as EE is uk based.  Even if you call a local number it’ll get routed through EE before going through,   Your usage have to be registered against your account. 

[bristolian · Accepted solution]

Hi @JosephDuffy 

Call & data routing whilst roaming can be complex, in-country voice calls can be routed locally but mobile data will use EE's core network.

This is not something user-selectable.

[XRaySpeX]

It makes sense too for when you are trying to reach country-restricted content from a UK phone wherever it may be located.

[JosephDuffy]

Thank you for confirming. I wish it were possible to opt out of this so I don't have a 300ms latency on every request, but I understand the reasoning.

[JosephDuffy]

This is a tradeoff that for me falls on the side being less useful. Lots of home routers support being a VPN server so it's easy (and free) to have access to a secure UK VPN, but accessing an IP in the country you're roaming in requires access to a local internet connection or a 3rd party VPN.