I live in the UK, and have a contract with O2. With O2 travel bolt-on, when outside the UK (and in a supported country) it is supposed to give me rates as per my home contract.

Most of my travel is to the UAE, however I also go to a fair few European countries.

I have a problem that when outside the UK the mobile data speed is throttled so slow that sending a Whatsapp message takes 1 - 2 seconds, downloading an e-mail takes 30 - 60 seconds, attachments - I know not to bother.

I've asked O2 and there is no option to pay extra for faster data speeds.


In Saudi Arabia (an unsupported country), I get great speeds, however it costs £7.20/Mb.


I've investigated Google Fi, but I need to keep my UK number.

I've looked at dual-sim options, but you need residency to have a non-tourist sim card for GCC countries. Tourist sim cards need to be re-activated (in a store, in person, with your passport) every 14 days.


I can't be the only person that has an essentially unlimited budget to want fast international data roaming without swapping sim cards every day and keeping my UK number active without having two phones.


Anyone have any suggestions to help? Do all UK networks do this?