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I've been using the free unlimited roaming from T-Mobile on several trips to Japan, Argentina, France, and Italy. Often, the speeds are actually faster than EDGE, unless the network is busy. I have had no issues using Google/Apple Maps or booking hotels, etc. through this connection. The only thing I miss is having Hotspot capabilities, even at the reduced speeds.

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EDGE is consistently, unbearably slow for me. If the phone has negotatiated EDGE, you should be getting EDGE speeds, which has a maximum bandwidth of 236 Kbit/s (theoretically up to 473.6 Kbit/s according to Wikipedia). That's not fast. I occasionally get reduced to EDGE on the Berlin subway, and I barely get Hacker News up.

(LTE has a maxmimum of about 450 Mbit/s, but in practice it's closer to 15-50 Mbit/s down, maybe half that up.)

Maybe someone who knows mobile technology could chime in.

In my experience, it's usually LTE but speed capped.

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