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EE roaming in Germany defaults to EDGE (was EE getting only or mostly 4G where it was 5G before)

Well Talk Home SIM is a budget brand which migh be relatively accceptable while EE is a premium brand so would expect to have a smooth ride wherever I go as long as I pay. Isn't thats the idea of Premium Brand?
Hence I caveated my statement.

Talk Home uses EE's roaming arrangements though so generally roaming partners and network level would work the same as native EE. Plusnet (whilst it was still open) would get 5G when roaming when you wouldn't in the UK, for example. Whereas there are other full-fat EE MVNOs like Lyca or Spusu who use Tele2 for roaming so would not.

When it comes to roaming agreements Three (and networks using their agreements) generally come out best around Europe and the world, due to range of partners including with 5G and minimal steering.

EE presents as a premium brand but whether they are is up for debate. Personally I would regard them as a rip off rather than premium.
 
Hence I caveated my statement.

Talk Home uses EE's roaming arrangements though so generally roaming partners and network level would work the same as native EE. Plusnet (whilst it was still open) would get 5G when roaming when you wouldn't in the UK, for example. Whereas there are other full-fat EE MVNOs like Lyca or Spusu who use Tele2 for roaming so would not.

When it comes to roaming agreements Three (and networks using their agreements) generally come out best around Europe and the world, due to range of partners including with 5G and minimal steering.

EE presents as a premium brand but whether they are is up for debate. Personally I would regard them as a rip off rather than premium.
Thanks, intereting and I mostly agree. To dive deeper into the caveats: EE presents itself as a premium brand, not just in pricing but also in positioning. This creates an expectation, and a reminder to EE (in case anyone from their team is reading), that it's not just wishful thinking from my side.

How do you know if Talk Home uses EE's roaming arrangements? Is this information publicly available somewhere, insider knowledge, or mostly based on empirical deductions?
 
I couldn't use Telekom either last year or this year. I thought it was odd that it wanted to use o2-de all the time given DT's shareholding in BT and the fact that O2 is of course a competitor.

I didn't notice any major performance issues though, aside from the lack of VoLTE roaming. I had bigger problems in the Netherlands where it wanted to use Vodafone when KPN was superior (which was available, just had to select manually)
DT roaming is turned off as they weren't paying roaming costs to EE for inbound roamers, happens quite a bit, I believe default is O2 DE and then Vodafone as a last resort
 
Real time billing of charges while roaming
are you on the trial?

You'd think but EE roaming didn't offer roaming on Telekom for a period at all (last year/earlier this year, I think?) - and still might not?
Correct, there's no Telekom access :( they both have an agreement but EE won't allow you to connect. Telekom DE can use all 4 UK networks.

When it comes to roaming agreements Three (and networks using their agreements) generally come out best around Europe and the world, due to range of partners including with 5G and minimal steering.
I find EE and O2 have more 5G roaming than 3, 3 is also the most likely to prefer a cheap/bad network, but if you can manually select and there's 5G their roaming seems decent.
 
Thank you for this thread, I travelled to Germany and had an absolute nightmare trying to get off EDGE this morning, it wouldn't budge from it for nearly 2 hours. I was advised by 1p to try Vodafone and Telekom on a manual search as o2 Germany was 2G / EDGE only.

......so after mainly airplane modes, and manual searching, just outside Dusseldorf, I tried O2 Germany one more time and got pretty fast 5G! :confused: I don't dare move off it now, yet my Firsty SIM (in free data mode) was sitting happily on 5G, all the way from Cologne to Dusselorf!

It's the first time I've seen roaming really play up since joining 1p, on the hotel WiFi now, so less worried.
 
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Thank you for this thread, I travelled to Germany and had an absolute nightmare trying to get off EDGE this morning, it wouldn't budge from it for nearly 2 hours. I was advised by 1p to try Vodafone and Telekom on a manual search as o2 Germany was 2G / EDGE only.

......so after mainly airplane modes, and manual searching, just outside Dusseldorf, I tried O2 Germany one more time and got pretty fast 5G! :confused: I don't dare move off it now, yet my Firsty SIM (in free data mode) was sitting happily on 5G, all the way from Cologne to Dusselorf!

It's the first time I've seen roaming really play up since joining 1p, on the hotel WiFi now, so less worried.
DT is completely blocked, EE doesn't allow it at all, only emergency calls
 
yeah, O2 DE and DT are the only decent networks in Germany, DT has a good investment on their network, they should though as they make EE look cheap, their 5GB SIMO is about €24.99
They've also very pro investing in their networks, over a decade ago I was able to get full coverage from DT from the U Bahn station at Tierpark Hagenbeck which is a deep underground line like the Northern, Central or even the Victoria lines in London and hold a full Skype chat with one of my friends live in Boulder Colorado.

It's only taken TfL the best part of a decade to get to what was easily available across Germany for a long time.

Can't comment much on O2 though.
 
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1pmobile roaming defaults to VF in Portugal which was 3G only. If I chose NOS then it was full 5G.
That sounds more like the device just picking whatever it sees first.
 
That sounds more like the device just picking whatever it sees first.
I was under the impression that it was mostly Vodafone and the MNVOs operating off it's network that would default to Vodafone networks aboard?

Thought the likes of Three, O2 and EE connected you to the strongest network possible?

Or have I misunderstood the entire countless pages of the roaming in the EU thread?
 
I was under the impression that it was mostly Vodafone and the MNVOs operating off it's network that would default to Vodafone networks aboard?

Thought the likes of Three, O2 and EE connected you to the strongest network possible?

Or have I misunderstood the entire countless pages of the roaming in the EU thread?
OP was stating that 1pMob (EE) connected to Vodafone PT 3G, when a stronger, better network (NOS 5G) was available.

That's why I said the device probably just connected to whatever it saw first, as can be the case with EE sometimes.
 
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Same in Düsseldorf, I could only get EDGE on Vodafone _de. No access at all to Telekom Deutschlands. Manually selecting O2-de worked the best.

In Ireland, eir and 3 worked fine both having 5G available and pretty fast too.
 
Thought the likes of Three, O2 and EE connected you to the strongest network possible?
No it depends on the country and steering.

3 will prefer 3 networks abroad (surprise!) but in general others will work and the steering never appears to be that heavy, it's easy to switch. It also steers to networks like Free France and Yoigo Spain. O2 will prefer O2/Movistar.

I don't know loads about EE steering but in Spain my Talk Home (uses EE roaming broker) SIM kept switching to Orange ES whenever I turned on automatic, and it wouldn't go above 3G. In France it would not be particularly happy about connecting to Bouygues (prefered Orange significantly). Whereas Vodafone UK whilst there is a slight preference for SFR will pretty happily let you switch to Orange.

Vodafone does appear to have the heaviest steering, but does not completely lock you to Vodafone networks, eg I have used 3Ireland (4G) and Eir (3G), Orange Romania, WINTRE Italy and KPN NL. Sometimes you cannot get onto these easily or even at all in most areas. In other countries there is no alternative though, eg in Spain you can only use Vodafone Spain and no one else.

Similarly my Vodafone IE eSIM will allow me onto EE UK 4G with no trouble. It isn't consistent across the group either, Vodafone IE can use Movistar 4G in Spain, Vodafone NL will only roam on Vodafone UK and EE 2G, in Austria (for example) one can use Magenta Telekom which isn't possible on Vodafone UK.

A key thing is that agreements and performance can change with no notice and totally unpredictably, and performance can be inconsistent even with access to the same roaming partners. Eg my last trip to France my friends on O2 had repeated issues despite being on the same local networks as me on Vodafone. Three dropped roaming on Telekom DE/other regions and lost any 5G roaming at all in Germany and the Netherlands for a period.
 
No it depends on the country and steering.

3 will prefer 3 networks abroad (surprise!) but in general others will work and the steering never appears to be that heavy, it's easy to switch. It also steers to networks like Free France and Yoigo Spain. O2 will prefer O2/Movistar.

I don't know loads about EE steering but in Spain my Talk Home (uses EE roaming broker) SIM kept switching to Orange ES whenever I turned on automatic, and it wouldn't go above 3G. In France it would not be particularly happy about connecting to Bouygues (prefered Orange significantly). Whereas Vodafone UK whilst there is a slight preference for SFR will pretty happily let you switch to Orange.

Vodafone does appear to have the heaviest steering, but does not completely lock you to Vodafone networks, eg I have used 3Ireland (4G) and Eir (3G), Orange Romania, WINTRE Italy and KPN NL. Sometimes you cannot get onto these easily or even at all in most areas. In other countries there is no alternative though, eg in Spain you can only use Vodafone Spain and no one else.

Similarly my Vodafone IE eSIM will allow me onto EE UK 4G with no trouble. It isn't consistent across the group either, Vodafone IE can use Movistar 4G in Spain, Vodafone NL will only roam on Vodafone UK and EE 2G, in Austria (for example) one can use Magenta Telekom which isn't possible on Vodafone UK.
Ahh that's interesting, thank you for your very detailed explanation.
 
Not sure if anyone is interested, but I experienced this problem last week when I was in Germany.

It's a real shame EE hasn't sorted it out.

I did find O2-DE worked well once I'd switched to it.
 
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