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o2 ultimate plan - roaming

AbsolutelyRidiculous

ULTIMATE Member
Okay speed is limited (but should be good enough for WhatsApp / FaceTime):

You get unlimited minutes, texts and data in our O2 Travel Inclusive Zone Ultimate, so there’s no worry about running out or extra charges.

You can make unlimited calls back to the UK and within your destinations (calls to other countries aren’t included and will be charged at standard roaming rates). Also, there's no usage limit on data, but speeds are capped at 2Mbps (that's fast enough to stream content on your mobile without any buffering).

O2 Travel Inclusive Zone Ultimate is our biggest ever inclusive roaming zone and covers 75 destinations outside Europe. Whether you’re holidaying in the Caribbean, on safari in South Africa or getting some winter sun in Dubai, you’re covered. And it’s only available with our Ultimate Plans.

The 75 destinations included in our Inclusive Zone Ultimate are: Albania, Anguilla, Argentina, Aruba, Australia, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Bermuda, Botswana, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Canada, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ghana, Greenland, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Honduras, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Israel, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mexico, Moldova, Montenegro, Montserrat, Myanmar, Netherlands Antilles, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Qatar, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Turks & Caicos, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, USA, Venezuela, Yemen, Zambia




Three have been bettered by o2! Except the pricing is horrendous.
 
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North Korea
Yeah, don't think I want to take my chances with roaming there, surprised they have an agreement with the network there anyways

If you only pay the £34 or so that was showing up for a 30GB SIMO offering, it's not terrible but not great either. O2's regular Travel Inclusive has no FUP at all and some people have reported uncapped speeds on it, it's good if you want to go to another country outside of Europe for an extended period of time without paying absurd pricing.
 
It has fewer destinations compared to the ultimate plan.

I could not find how long you can spend abroad roaming on the ultimate plan outside Europe.

I like that you can call numbers in the country you are in. It’s absurd of Three to not offer that. As it’s essential eg hotel bookings restaurant bookings etc.

Interesting development.

Will EE follow?
 
The Three UK's Go Roam Around the World Extra plan offers roaming in the following additional countries that are not included in the O2 Ultimate plan:
Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Antigua and Barbuda, Cuba, Gabon, Georgia, Gibraltar, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Macau, Maldives, Mongolia, Morocco, North Korea, Oman, Palestine, Senegal, Seychelles, Tajikistan, Togo, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Zaire
Where did you get this list from? It's not correct.

Three doesn't have any roaming in North Korea, Iran or Palestine for example. Several of these are not Go Roam Around the World Extra destinations, eg Iraq, Turkmenstan, Togo and Cuba.

Gibraltar is a Go Roam in Europe destination on Three, and an EU roaming destination on O2.

Macau and Vietnam are Go Roam Around the World destinations (not Extra), although you're right that they're not included on O2 Travel Inclusive Zone Ultimate.

I like that you can call numbers in the country you are in. It’s absurd of Three to not offer that. As it’s essential eg hotel bookings restaurant bookings etc.

Will EE follow?
I agree on the calls. The prices Three want for local calls are ridiculous (generally £1.40 per minute). Their price lookup table also appears to be very weirdly laid out with references to different names and tariffs.

Maybe EE will follow but given they want £25 for a roaming bundle which only adds 5 countries on top of the EU, and their roaming data bundle rates for elsewhere have also been some of the least competitive it'll be quite a shift!

There are a couple of quirks I noted in the Three choices mind:
Monaco is still a Rest of World destination - whilst it's a standard EU destination for both iD and Honest who uses Three's agreements. On top of that it's a prime location for inadvertent roaming.
Belarus is a Rest of World destination but a free roaming destination on iD

I haven't done a full analysis so I may have missed some, but it appears the countries O2 inclusive has that aren't in any of Three's Go Roam bands are: Monaco (O2 EU zone on PAYM only, not PAYG), Belarus (O2 Inclusive Ultimate), Venezuela and Yemen (both are O2 Travel Inclusive, ie the one you get with Volt)
 
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Based on the information provided, here is a comparison of the roaming destinations offered by the O2 Ultimate plan and Three UK's Go Roam Around the World Extra:

The O2 Ultimate plan offers roaming in the following countries:
Albania, Anguilla, Argentina, Aruba, Australia, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Bermuda, Botswana, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Canada, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ghana, Greenland, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Honduras, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Israel, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mexico, Moldova, Montenegro, Montserrat, Myanmar, Netherlands Antilles, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Qatar, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Turks & Caicos, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, USA, Venezuela, Yemen, Zambia

The Three UK's Go Roam Around the World Extra plan offers roaming in the following additional countries that are not included in the O2 Ultimate plan:
Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Antigua and Barbuda, Cuba, Gabon, Georgia, Gibraltar, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Macau, Maldives, Mongolia, Morocco, North Korea, Oman, Palestine, Senegal, Seychelles, Tajikistan, Togo, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Zaire

So, the key countries that Three UK's Go Roam Around the World Extra offers roaming in that are not included in the O2 Ultimate plan are:

Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Antigua and Barbuda, Cuba, Gabon, Georgia, Gibraltar, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Macau, Maldives, Mongolia, Morocco, North Korea, Oman, Palestine, Senegal, Seychelles, Tajikistan, Togo, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Zaire.
North Korea, what? Is that just made up to make the list look longer?

Someone needs to try this on the border
 
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I am having second thoughts about whether 2Mbps is nothing more than a gimmick. In this day and age, 10 Mbps speed restriction would be more appropriate.

Also, the omission of countries like Bahrain, Oman, Morocco, doesn't make sense.

Would welcome your views.
I don't see 2mbps being that bad in all honesty if it's stable.

With testing with these kneecapped eSIMs (would love to know what EE Stay Connected is like), if you got a stable signal, 0.3mbps isn't actually too bad
 
I am having second thoughts about whether 2Mbps is nothing more than a gimmick. In this day and age, 10 Mbps speed restriction would be more appropriate.
2Mb is fine in my opinion for inclusive unlimited data when visiting another country. It's perfectly fine to do everything I need on a phone as a single device. Only really gets frustrating if tethering other things to it.

For roaming, I have gotten used to a set amount of high speed data then unlimited data at a reduced speed of 0.5Mb. Even that does the job for me. Music streams just fine. I'm not going to be watching videos with that unless I am at the lowest possible quality and letting it buffer a little before playback starts but for the essentials while on the go it does the job fine. 2Mb would be a huge upgrade for me.

Oh, and 2Mb roaming is probably way faster than the speeds that the average O2 customer would get to enjoy within the UK in terms of mobile data!
 
I am having second thoughts about whether 2Mbps is nothing more than a gimmick. In this day and age, 10 Mbps speed restriction would be more appropriate.

Also, the omission of countries like Bahrain, Oman, Morocco, doesn't make sense.

Would welcome your views.
I would think that a regional eSim would be cheaper if you can make do with WhatsApp, iMessage and or FaceTime, maybe a landline over voip using Bria.
 
I would think that a regional eSim would be cheaper if you can make do with WhatsApp, iMessage and or FaceTime, maybe a landline over voip using Bria.

Yes I agree to an extent, this is unlimited data (obv one has to be reasonable & there is only so much that you can do with 2Mbps) but this is a better proposition. For what it is, it does seem worth it but would have been much better if they had greater global coverage (inexplicable why, 123 is better than what was before, but 163 or 200 is much much better) and took away the 25gb limit in the EU.

Also their coverage is pretty crap in the UK, so in my case I have it purely for the kind of global roaming and no other reason. Three has greater coverage but 56 day passes, really? And considerable ambiguity about whether that is 56 per year or 56 for use during the 24 month contract period, the latter being a totally unattractive proposition, esp given how poor their data speeds are in certain parts of the country. & Three do not include calls in the destination you are in the RTW.

Both companies customer service is beyond awful. High time Parliament legislated to require on shore CS.
 
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EE stay connected is 0.5mb isn't it? Good enough for messaging and possibly audio WA/FT/etc calls?
Definitely good enough for messaging, upload may not be the fastest if you're uploading images/videos though

Audio calls should work fine too, doubt video calls though
 
EE stay connected is 0.5mb isn't it?
There's 2 versions. One is 0.5Mb, the other is 2Mb. Most people are given the slower one while the larger allowance was introduced for key workers.

In both cases, the speed limits are somewhat loosely enforced. Smaller bursts of data don't tend to be restricted at all. Larger more sustained loads do get slowed down but often not quite as slow as they advertise. Last time I dipped into this data reserve, speedtest would slow to about 0.7Mb
 
Okay speed is limited (but should be good enough for WhatsApp / FaceTime):

You get unlimited minutes, texts and data in our O2 Travel Inclusive Zone Ultimate, so there’s no worry about running out or extra charges.

You can make unlimited calls back to the UK and within your destinations (calls to other countries aren’t included and will be charged at standard roaming rates). Also, there's no usage limit on data, but speeds are capped at 2Mbps (that's fast enough to stream content on your mobile without any buffering).

O2 Travel Inclusive Zone Ultimate is our biggest ever inclusive roaming zone and covers 75 destinations outside Europe. Whether you’re holidaying in the Caribbean, on safari in South Africa or getting some winter sun in Dubai, you’re covered. And it’s only available with our Ultimate Plans.

The 75 destinations included in our Inclusive Zone Ultimate are: Albania, Anguilla, Argentina, Aruba, Australia, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Bermuda, Botswana, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Canada, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ghana, Greenland, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Honduras, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Israel, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mexico, Moldova, Montenegro, Montserrat, Myanmar, Netherlands Antilles, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Qatar, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Turks & Caicos, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, USA, Venezuela, Yemen, Zambia




Three have been bettered by o2! Except the pricing is horrendous.
O2 seems to be competing directly with the smaller players. That's what most of them are known for. This is very interesting... Long list though. I'll definitely be trying it soon to see if it works as promised. Three is more keen on being generous with data.
 
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