Giffgaff or Three - what are they like?

GeX

GeX

GeX

Soldato
Joined
17 Dec 2002
Posts
6,986
Location
Manchester
Hi all

Terminating my Vodafone contract today and am looking to go PAYG. I bought a Nexus S simfree so am not interested in getting a new contract with a new phone (at the moment..maybe a SG2 will sway me in a few months?).

Deal wise, Giffgaff look to be very good. £10 a month, 150mins (250 till end of March iirc?), unlimited text and unlimited data - and then 8p per min for calls outside the allowance.

I'm wary of the O2 network though, I think of it as a well matured game of buckaroo..

My other option is three. On a £10 a month rolling contract I can get 100mins, 3000 texts and 1gb data. Out of allowance calls are around 30p per min though iirc.

I have been with three before and found both their network and customer services to be very good. This was around 4 years ago mind.

Any opinions, suggestions?
 
Giffgaff is absolutely excellent except for one huge glaring problem.

O2.

The o2 network is completely horrible. I have nearly left on several occasions now - hit and miss data usage, random message sending failures, patchy signal, its just shocking.

I'd move to Three but I got a PAYG SIM only to discover no coverage at my house, because they've removed the ability to roam onto Orange for 2g :(
 
Giffgaff is absolutely excellent. best value tariffs i have had since 1998, back when you could get prepaid plans.

one tip though which i got caught out by. With giffgaff if you only buy the £10 goodybag and use all the allowence but before the 30days are up. you cannot activate another goodybag, therefore you keep having to buy credit which can work out quite a bit more than if you purchased a £20 goodybag in the first place.
 
Giffgaff here as well, £10 goody bag get me 250mins unlimted texts and unlimited internet, which is a fantastic deal i think, so far even tho i hated O2 the networks been fine.
 
the £25 goodybag is pretty good at the moment for buisness users

1500mins
free giffgaff to giffgaff calls
unlimited txt
unlimited internet.


plus to all future giffgaffers, by taking part in the forums you can make back enough cash via paypal to pay for your goodybags.

ive made over £100 in the last couple of months:D
 
I have been using my Giffgaff simcard for nearly 2 weeks now in my GT540, and I am quite impresssed. I bought the £10 goody bag becuase all I really need is mobile internet. I have never had any problems getting a signal with O2, I have used just over 600mb of data, download speed isn't amazing. I tend to get 300-700kb/s download and 300-400 upload speed, the best I have ever got was 1700kb/s down and 500kb/s upload. Not amazing speeds but pretty consistent.
I like the idea of no contract, no direct debit, I have already got a couple of work mates to order sims so I should get £10 credit when they activate their sims, so my next goody bag should be free - so I cannot complain.
Giffgaff is great if the O2 network is good in your location.
 
Giffgaff here after fox's recommendation. For me its prefect as O2 are the best signal at work by far (and by best I get signal about 75% of the site, compared to about 10% with T-mobile/Orange and 50% on Vodafone).

Apart from the text issue the other week have had no problems
 
Yeah, I'm on Giffgaff.

I've not encountered any of the problems listed by Fox so assume it is location based?
 
Now 3 no longer have other network roaming reception can be very hit and miss. I've got a 3g data dongle and speeds are very good where it works. I'd go with Giffgaff as though the o2 network isn't always the fastest for data, in fact it's often poor, it's gsm coverage is great. I very rarely find myself out of range on my own o2 phone but often on my work T-mobile/Orange one.
 
GiffGaff here also. O2 signal is sound where I am... in the house its a bit ****, but no one seems to be able to get a good signal in our house no matter who they're with. Its like living in a bunker.
 
Wow these deals sound great. My wife's mobile is up for renewal next month so I may get her an Orange san francisco if it can be easily unlocked
 
thanks guys, I have a couple of spare phones and a sim on three and one on O2. I'll put something together, work out which gets the better signals where I am and then go with that.
 
GiffGaff all the way for me.

Things have improved so much since I stopped using my Orange sim (even though I still have 9 months left on contract).

I get a much better signal in most areas, and my internet speeds are excellent. I'm getting around 2mb download speeds and 1mb upload at all times, a vast improvement over Orange where I was barely getting an internet connection at all.

Really pleased with these guys and find my £10 goodie bag is just right :D
 
GeX said:
thanks guys, I have a couple of spare phones and a sim on three and one on O2. I'll put something together, work out which gets the better signals where I am and then go with that.
Click to expand...

The San Fran is easy to unlock and free too.
 
The O2 data network is shocking. In fact it's so bad they have been warned by OFCOM.

Even in strong areas, i never get more than around 0.36Mbs - In contrast i've seen people on T-mobile getting well over 2-3Mbs
 
englishpremier said:
The O2 data network is shocking. In fact it's so bad they have been warned by OFCOM.

Even in strong areas, i never get more than around 0.36Mbs - In contrast i've seen people on T-mobile getting well over 2-3Mbs
Click to expand...


Wrong about the strong areas comment in my case. Have just done a speedtest, got 3807 kbps download, 366 upload.
 
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