17. UE "Roam like at home": ORO throttle

1. Limitation of prepay subscribers in roaming to 2Mbps : permanent limitation from protocol, PCRF
2. Limitation of postpay subscribers in roaming to 2Mbps during peak hours : most likely done with firewalls

3. Wrong statement that for download 500Mbps is possible. In fac the user profile specifies 450Mbps
4. Wrong statement that for upload 150Mbps is possible: ORO does not support UL CA, at least no reply from ORO call centre and on the forums, so 150Mbps is not possible.

1. Prepay permanent limitation to 2Mbps ONLY IN ROAMING ... against the "Roam like at home" idea!

https://forum.softpedia.com/topic/1098676-roaming-orange/page__st__1206#entry23542384

Roaming in Czech Republic, using TMobile CZ and O2 CZ networks.

Prepay SIM cards have a 450Mbps/150Mbps profile when the user is in Romania.

While Roaming , the speed is changed to 2Mbps/2Mbps, most likely by Orange Romania since exactly the same bahaviour is happening on both Czech roaming partners and is reported by a lot of roaming users in different countries.

Network Signal Guru screeshots from TMobile CZ and O2 Cz proving the profile limitation.

From technical point of view, most likely the profile stays the same in ORO main subscriber database - HSS (450/150Mbps) and is limited to 2Mbps/2Mbps when the subscriber connects to the network through a PCRF policy based on the roaming status of the user. The values specified in this policy are sent to the roaming partners and finally to the phone. Radio resources are allocated based on these new values: 2Mbps in downlink and uplink.

About APN AMBR and how it is changed by PCRF see: http://www.sploty.com/en/apn-ambr-and-ue-ambr.html

The limitation is permanent, applied all day long.

Screenshots taken in roaming:

Network Signal Guru screenshots from the same Prepay SIM, taken in Orange Romania (PLMN 226/10) and in Czech Republic TMobile network (PLMN 230/01) . It can be seen clearly that the speed profile is limited to 2Mbps in roaming, while in the home network the download speed profile is 450Mbps.

By telecom protocol specifications, the APN AMBR values specify the maximum speed to be reached in downlink and uplink.

Network Signal Guru "Activate Default Bearer Context Request": The message sent by the network to the mobile phone with the 2Mbps (2048kbps) limit values:

Orange postpay vs Orange prepay in roaming, only prepay is limited during out of peak hours period. The roaming operator doesn't know if a SIM is postpay or prepay, so the limitation comes from Orange Romania. Second screenshot proving that the same cell is used for both tests. Radio conditions are very good.

2. Postpay limitation :ORO limits the postpaid subscribers to 2Mbps in peak hours

The 2Mbps limitation is done only for downlink data and only in peak hours, using another solution, most likely through some firewalls.

UE still gets its home profile, 450Mbps DL/150Mbps UL, radio resources are alocated for these values, however Orange does some kind of traffic shaping to 2Mbps Download.

1st screenshot : no limitatiom