When I was in Germany I was paying £5 per day for the privilege of using data.

I was unable to use my VPN to connect to work (they throttle most types of basic VPN) and one again had to resort to the special VPN (which uses countermeasures to avoid being throttled) and I was able to work with good speeds.

If I'm paying more than Vodafone why shouldn't I expect the same service level.

Especially when there is no technical issue (the pipes are big enough otherwise the VPN would be no better).

For fairness why shouldn't I be told that my expensive Three roaming data is inferior to other networks cheaper options.

They should allow us to compare like for like and choose fairly!

Misleading figures. This is not what people would have paid to Three. Consumption tends to increase as the price reduces.

There euro pass is one of the most expensive (£5) but it still suffers the same throttling!

So why not be honest about it. Describe products actually and allow people to choose fairly.

I agree it's great value and would probably choose it most of the time. But knowing when it's unsuitable is important.

The VPN doesn't change the path your data takes to reach the internet, it simply is another server on the Internet that you connect to securely. You then pass your requests through this secure link and the VPN server passes them on to the Internet and collects the responses which it passes back to you through the secure link.

Without VPN.
You <-> roaming net <-> ThreeUK <-> webserver

With VPN.
You <-> roaming net <-> ThreeUK -> VPN <-> webserver

I'm obviously a sucker for punishment, as Three is really going to hate me for this, but I thought I'd go and test Feel at Home vs Vodafone and get it on video - which you can view here (once it's processed):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjVm...ature=youtu.be

I compared it against Vodafone and the EuroTraveller service.

Interesting! So looking at the location of the speedtest server, it looks like 3 are doing local breakout (for speedtests at least), whereas Vodafone are sending the speedtest traffic back via the UK. I don't suppose you know where Netflix thought you were when on 3?

The Speedtest apps don't just use IP based geolocation, they also use GPS, so it's hard to draw a conclusion like that.

I thought they selected based on lowest ping (although I guess the initial subset to test ping would have to be based on something, whether that be IP location or geolocation)

For the VPN I selected UK, but otherwise Netflix would have thought of me as being in Denmark and Sweden. Certainly in the latter case, when I'm there I can see all the Swedish content which includes (or did) all episodes of South Park and Family Guy.

Hi, While I totally support you on your attempt to fight Three on this, I wish you had done more than just video apps.. things like google maps are also restricted, not to mention even the most basic web browsing, or things like emailing pics and vids

since you have an android phone, is there any app that would show you the real speed when doing something like sending a photo? then if you compared that to the speed test it'd be good stuff to throw at Three.

By thge way, three has blocked me on facebook!!!

Just realised there's sound. Makes even more sense now!

Do you know what for?

My trip wasn't to test this in great depth, but rather spend much of the day sorting out a passport and visiting some family. I'd have liked to do many more tests, and if I do any more I'll film them so you can see the video.

I'd try streaming radio, Spotify, download some files and use Google maps. I know what to expect, as many of us do, but it would be good to show it because Three does still want a lot of people to think it might sometimes work.

Maybe something for the future. I'm back in Sweden in December so will have time to do lots of testing because I'm there 10 days, not just 10 hours.

Great job Jon!

This is exactly my experience in France, Germany, Italy and Croatia over a dozen or so trips.

I'm going to Germany tomorrow and Spain next month but unfortunately I don't have an android phone to test the "magical" VPN...

So it's not just any UK VPN but *a* certain VPN?

Yes that's exactly right

Drawing board. Exit, stage -right.

yes... Three also throttles most VPN networks, making them almost unusable.

Of course Three would deny that too and blame the VPN!

I think that's why they say you can use a VPN because they know that you will probably have problems there too. In fact, when Three watch the video they'll almost certainly be wondering how I have a VPN they've not blocked.

I'm in France from Sunday, so I'll do some experimenting.

From my time there in May, it's the same as when I've been in Spain, Germany, Denmark and Sweden. If I go to the US in January, I've no doubt it will be the same there.

If everything is piped back to the UK, it has to be the same everywhere.

You'll find that even with 3G, you can get good speeds. Speeds that you really don't need, but look nice on speed test results. You should find email comes through, albeit slower (but for things like that, you'll hardly notice) and Facebook works etc.

Try downloading some files, or updating apps. Load Netflix, YouTube etc. See if you can stream BBC News or whatever. Then try Spotify or a streaming radio service. Use Plex? See if you can stream video from home...

These usage scenarios might seem to some as over the top. We've seen from this thread that some believe when you're on holiday you're in some way meant to be on holiday and not using any of these things. Funny thing is, many of my trips (at least half, maybe more) are not for sitting on a beach and doing nothing.

That's what Three seems to want everyone to think. That when you go abroad you'll only be wanting to use data to send photos of the sea to colleagues, not avoid high hotel TV prices by watching a film on Netflix, or rented on the Play Store.

I would be very happy for Three to rebrand the service if they want to restrict things, and then introduce an add-on for full-speed access and possibly even 4G access.

While waiting, I'll just use Three Like Home from Three Ireland 🇮🇪 where I can, which is not crippled in any way, shape or form.

When I used three feel like home in Italy, Youtube and streaming worked without a glitch on IWIND, just like it does in the UK , but on Three italia it was a completely different matter and ran just like the videos posted by jmoris

Even on iwind I had problems. As soon as I enabled my (normal) office VPN I had no throughput and couldn't work. Turn it off and everything was OK (normal browsing).

Use the special VPN and I'm fine but can't connect to my office (can't VPN through a VPN).