Data Throttled Abroad

[jsmyth16]

Hi all, first post here. Took out a vodafone contract around 2 months ago to be able to get proper, unrestricted 4G in France this summer. Was previously with Three and 3G roaming & throttling was awful, so I switched. 

I've arrived in France via Eurotunnel, and a group of 5 of us have driven right down to the south of France. 2 of us are on vodafone, 2 on giffgaff, and 1 on BT mobile. The problem is, the 2 vodafone phones are getting awful speeds, on both 3G and 4G, while all other phones work perfectly.

Friends on giffgaff can easily load pages, maps and Spotify easily, all on 3G. Friend on BT Mobile gets 4G and is getting 40+ Mbps. But myself & the other vodafone phone, have not once seen a speed above 0.2 Mbps.

I have tried SFR, Bouygues and Orange, all are the same. The other phones have tried all networks too, and they all work fine.

Vodafones website literally says "We never throttle abroad, so you'll enjoy full speed roaming". This is clearly not the case? I have a Global Roaming plan, and 20GB of data. Could anybody help me?

As an example, I've just taken my vodafone phone and friends BT phone and put them beside each other. Both are connected to exactly the same Cell ID, and using 2600MHz 4G on Orange F. Speed test on BT gives 45Mbps consistently, and loads everything flawlessly. Speedtest on vodafone, gives 0.15 Mbps, and things like Maps, Facebook etc take a few minutes to load. What is going on? :smileysad: I'm going to have to buy a local SIM at this rate, I'm so disappointed in vodafone. 

[Jenny]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for all the updates.

We’re unable to provide timeframes, however once the case has been raised with our Network engineers, they start investigating right away. 

As soon as we have any further info we’ll update this thread.

[JOHN-1970]

Hi Jenny, 

I will be leaving France on Wednesday next week. I am happy to continue to assist the Vodafone engineering & roaming team, however my experience of the Vodafone roaming service is disappointing and has consumed a lot of my time. Time that I should have had to spend and enjoy with my family. I have an eight years old who does not like Vodafone as a result of all of this malarkey. 

The average 2Mbps speed during day time and 4G speed only available during time night isn't the service I was sold by Vodafone; I was mislead to believe that the 4G service was available during day as well. Thus far the investigation has failed produced a reasonable explanation for the quality of the service I've experienced whilst roaming on vodafone's 4G partner networks SFR and Bouygues. I am however grateful of the time you have personally allocated to this issue both here on this forum and via emails. Overall the Vodafone roaming service has not delivered in my experience the 4G performance advertised, sold and expected at the time of entering into a contract with Vodafone. I will file a formal complaint with Vodafone on my return in the UK. In the meantime I awaiting to read the results of the on-going investigation. Could you also provide the link and all relevant procedures to file a complaint with Vodafone & Ofcom.

Regards, 

John  

[Gemma]

@JOHN-1970 - I’m sorry to hear of the problems you’ve been having while abroad.

I can assure you that we’ve taken this very seriously and have escalated your case. Our Network engineers are working hard to get everything resolved as quickly as possible. 

As soon as we have an update, we’ll be in touch.

[JOHN-1970]

Good evening Gemma, Thank you for your message.

It is my experience that Vodafone has not/is not delivering a 4G roaming Service. I struggle to understand why Vodafone as a major industry player would consider that it would be ok to advertise and sell a 4G data service to in lieu deliver at best what can only be described by telecom standard as a 3G service (±2-3Mbps DL). In the abscence of a reasonable explanation will Vodafone offer a full refund or a discount as a commercial gesture?

I'd like to be a Vodafone customer for the long run but I must be honest I struggle right now to find the rational to entrust Vodafone with a long term contract. What matters I believe is consistency and expectation. To give you an example, I have travelled with Ryanair lately. Their cost is low, the service is poor (pretty much inexistant) but it is consistent across their portfolio. You know what you paid for and you know what you'll get. In fact Ryanair makes no claim of being anything but a cheap airline. On the other hand Vodafone pormised best-in-class EU and global service but in lieu delivers a much lower product. I'm happy to pay the premier as long as product is delivered. Will Vodafone act like an industry leader and consider a full refund? Please message me privately at your discretion. 

For the avoidance of doubts the service at the time of writting (23:51 18.8.2017 France) is 1.57Mbps on Bouygues' 4G network with optimal radio signal strength (5 Bars). I doubt that Bouygues has deployed a 4G network to deliver at best ±2Mbps where optimal radio condition apply. 

Notwithstanding the above mentioned I await you response on a commercial view point and to read the output of your investigation/escalation. 

As always I remain optimistic and gratefull for your support and the support of the network team. 

Regards

John 

[JOHN-1970]

Good morning Gemma, 

It is 5:02 am at the time of writting this entry. I have emailed the eforum web email address the results of the speedtest I have just done. It is consistent will all previous results and currently <18Mbps on DL. Since this has been a constant daily I now expect the data service  to return to 3G speed at about 10am (±10min) local time. I will share these results and our communications with both the UK Ofcom and French ARCEP regulators on my return to the UK. I have yet to receive a response to my request for information in relation to Vodafone's procedure in order to file a complaint.

Should I expect to recieve from Vodafone any 4G like service during day time before the end of my contract Aug 24th ? Should I expect to be charged by Vodafone full 4G service although the product i.e. the 4G Service has been delivered consistently only during night time whilst during day time Internet access is bearly manageable? 

Awaiting your response.

Regards,

John

[JOHN-1970]

This morning to my surprise I am blessed with >7Mbps DL. No explanation; weekend maybe?   

[baz03]

Yep here to John a whopping 11.39 DL that's perfect goes to show it is doable in the same area on the same partner network let's see what happens Monday 

Brian 

[JOHN-1970]

Thanks Brian. I believe we have material for Ofcom to investigate here.

Have a great weekend 

John 

[Alex]

@JOHN-1970 I've replied to your email earlier today. 

Rest assured our teams are still looking into this and are working hard behind the scenes - we'll be sure to post any updates on this thread. 

I can understand your frustration with this issue and I highly appreciate your patience whilst our investigation takes place. 

[baz03]

Here we go again 0.39 dl..

We not even complete speed test as it says unable to connect to the server..

cant load my bank account either and I'm on a business account with Vodafone.