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GiffGaff - free internet on pay as you go

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  • coastal 2 Jul 2010 16:40:08 5,350 posts
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    I may have posted this elsewhere but it's worth updating..

    GiffGaff (O2 child company) have reduced their bundle deals by half price through July but more importantly have stated that there will be free internet on all their SIMs until the 1st of October 2010.

    Their bundles can be found here. 100 minutes/100 texts is now £5 per month or 8p min/4p text without the bundles. Free data on both.

    I've been with them about a month or so and it's fantastic. GG and Virgin were the only ones I could find that were doing pay as you go direct debit. No more stupid top up hassle.

    Help is provided through very active forums and the means to reward helpful posters. Speaking of which, if you sign up I might be able to earn a few points as a referrer [Coastal].

    bf3: sergeant_shaftoe

  • PhoenixFlames 2 Jul 2010 16:42:55 8,519 posts
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    /cuts down sim for iPhone 4.

    I drive an automatic 'cause I'm too cool to change gears.

    PSN - phoenix1flames

  • THFourteen 22 Mar 2012 08:56:55 29,274 posts
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    Just signed up!

    Waiting for my number to be ported across tomorrow.

    "Unlimited" internet and texts + 250mins for £10 a month seems too good to be true. Although no MMS included which i use quite a bit, and no support for visual voicemail.
  • presh 22 Mar 2012 09:04:55 1,221 posts
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    THFourteen wrote:
    Just signed up!

    Waiting for my number to be ported across tomorrow.

    "Unlimited" internet and texts + 250mins for £10 a month seems too good to be true. Although no MMS included which i use quite a bit, and no support for visual voicemail.
    I'm on GiffGaff and it's pretty good - and I'm sure that MMS is included? I certainly seem to use it OK...

    You can use a free service called Hullo Mail to still get visual voicemail - although I don't really miss it...
  • THFourteen 22 Mar 2012 09:22:05 29,274 posts
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    is Hullo any good?

    was trying out ON Voicemail. It works, but it looks like shite!

    oh and i sent an mms last night and it took 16p out of my balance and not my £10 goodybag

    Edited by THFourteen at 09:22:29 22-03-2012
  • sport 22 Mar 2012 09:28:35 10,987 posts
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    Yeah, I'm with Giffgaff and am quite happy. But the MMS issue is a little irritating, mainly because I can't send or receive any - but I think it might be because of my phone settings. But the unlimited internet more than makes up for it.
  • Dougs 22 Mar 2012 09:32:38 59,515 posts
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    I would use them as and when my contract ends, but the O2 signal where I am is shite. It's Voda or nothing.
  • THFourteen 22 Mar 2012 09:37:48 29,274 posts
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    sport wrote:
    Yeah, I'm with Giffgaff and am quite happy. But the MMS issue is a little irritating, mainly because I can't send or receive any - but I think it might be because of my phone settings. But the unlimited internet more than makes up for it.
    what phone are you using? i had to set up the MMS settings manually based on one of the help forms, but once i did that it works fine.

    does unlimited internet actually mean unlimited internet? can i stream sky go on the train now?
  • Aargh. 22 Mar 2012 09:46:35 11,350 posts
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    They've never penalised or charged me for excessive use. There's also no mention of 'fair use' on their site that I've ever seen.
  • sport 22 Mar 2012 09:47:42 10,987 posts
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    THFourteen wrote:
    sport wrote:
    Yeah, I'm with Giffgaff and am quite happy. But the MMS issue is a little irritating, mainly because I can't send or receive any - but I think it might be because of my phone settings. But the unlimited internet more than makes up for it.
    what phone are you using? i had to set up the MMS settings manually based on one of the help forms, but once i did that it works fine.

    does unlimited internet actually mean unlimited internet? can i stream sky go on the train now?
    I've got an Acer Liquid Metal. I tried some settings I got from the site with no luck - should try again though. Any links?

    Unlimited does mean unlimited, but you can't use it for tethering. Streaming is fine, but I'm not sure what the speed is like on Sky Go.
  • tombo 22 Mar 2012 09:51:17 2,059 posts
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    Yeah, giffgaff are generally very reasonable. It might be worth noting that their whole network was down for most of last Friday. Voice, texts and data. Which doesn't happen to any of the bigger networks.
  • Dougs 22 Mar 2012 09:53:32 59,515 posts
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    They use O2's network though....
  • THFourteen 22 Mar 2012 09:56:28 29,274 posts
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    well there's a thread about it here:

    http://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Help-Ask-the-community-got-stuck/Getting-mms-working-on-Android-2-3-on-Acer-Liquid-MT/m-p/3317707
    which seems to suggest either downloading the giffgaffapn app from android market and letting it do it for you, or using these settings:
    Go to settings -wireless networks-mobile network setting-access point names and click your giffgaff apn and edit the mms settings as follows.

    MMS Settings

    Connection Name: giffgaff - MMS
    APN - Access Point Name: giffgaff.com
    Username: giffgaff
    Password: password
    Server: http://mmsc.mediamessaging.co.uk:8002
    MMSC: http://mmsc.mediamessaging.co.uk:8002
    MMS proxy: 193.113.200.195
    MMS port: 8080
    MCC: 234
    MNC: 10
    APN type: mms
    I had to use a different server/MMSC because i'm on iphone but other than that i used the same details.

    the thread says you definitely need 16p in your balance to send MMS btw
  • sport 22 Mar 2012 09:57:22 10,987 posts
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    Dougs wrote:
    They use O2's network though....
    Yeah, I didn't quite understand it myself, but the entire service was down for Friday - something to do with a burst water pipe in the data center or something.

    I don't think direct customers of O2 were affected - weird.
  • sport 22 Mar 2012 10:01:16 10,987 posts
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    @THFourteen - thanks mate, will try those settings out a little later.
  • Aargh. 22 Mar 2012 10:05:45 11,350 posts
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    They're already looking at how to improve their infrastructure so that they don't have that sort of problem again.
  • Dougs 22 Mar 2012 10:06:39 59,515 posts
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    sport wrote:

    Yeah, I didn't quite understand it myself, but the entire service was down for Friday - something to do with a burst water pipe in the data center or something.

    I don't think direct customers of O2 were affected - weird.
    Interesting. I know nothing of how VMNOs operate, so must be akin to LLU in the broadband world or something
  • THFourteen 26 Mar 2012 10:37:39 29,274 posts
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    grrrr

    supposed to transfer my number over on Friday, and it's only half done so i have no service atm on my giffgaff sim!
  • lucky_jim 26 Mar 2012 10:49:03 4,925 posts
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    sport wrote:
    Unlimited does mean unlimited, but you can't use it for tethering.
    So it's not actually unlimited then. This really enrages me, especially after moving to the Czech Republic where largely the same networks you have in the UK (Three, O2, Vodafone etc) allow tethering even on PAYG (which was hugely useful when I first moved here).

    Ok, I can just about tolerate some kind of limit when it's a free data plan, but even then: what difference does it make to them what you're using your data allowance for? It's like going to the shop in the morning because you've forgotten milk for your cereal, and being told "nope, that milk's just for your tea, if you want it for cereal you'll have to buy this identical milk for £20".

    Naked profiteering, although it fits in with my view of what the UK's become: the little guy being gouged time and time again by massive companies and the people who run them.

    Edited by lucky_jim at 10:53:43 26-03-2012
  • THFourteen 26 Mar 2012 10:55:58 29,274 posts
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    unlimited internet for use on one device maybe a better description.

    its there to protect against people who go home and tether their home pcs and use it for torrenting all evening, thus using all the bandwidth and making it slow for everyone else.
  • lucky_jim 26 Mar 2012 14:46:14 4,925 posts
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    @THFourteen

    I'd accept that excuse if UK 3G networks were remotely fast enough to do that, and if it wasn't for the fact that each of the main UK networks also operates here in the Czech Republic without such a restriction. In fact, whenever I try to explain it to Czech people they're always astounded.

    So, I'll stick to labelling it as naked profiteering. Unfortunately people in the UK have become so used to being shafted by multinational corporations, usually with the government's help, that many people don't even recognise when it's happening anymore. Ok, GiffGaff are much better than their UK competition, but when you pick a UK mobile phone network you're only choosing how hard you're permitting yourself to get shafted. There's no option, short of not having a phone, to say "no thanks, I'll skip the shafting please".

    Spending time in a culture that doesn't work that way is a real eye-opener. I'm sure they'll fall in line here before too long, but for now I'm loving the fact that I'm treated as a valuable customer by the phone operators here, whereas their UK branches treated me as a mug to be exploited.
  • uiruki 26 Mar 2012 14:55:04 3,090 posts
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    God forbid you go to America, then. Also, when I was with Giffgaff I did a little bit of tethering through Android when there was no other internet about (laptop, Kindle, even a 360) and I didn't get any nastygrams or anything.
  • lucky_jim 26 Mar 2012 15:05:15 4,925 posts
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    Heh I've never been to the US, not even for a holiday, but I've always suspected I'd explode with rage within five minutes of landing and be sent straight back home.

    Edited by lucky_jim at 15:05:40 26-03-2012
  • Gl3n 26 Mar 2012 16:57:08 4,937 posts
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    1 on Giffgaff being really great.
  • THFourteen 27 Mar 2012 10:40:17 29,274 posts
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    heh just been over to the giffgaff forums and found out that a whole load of their number ports failed over friday

    still no service here. definitely won't be recommending it to people who want to keep their old numbers.

    had no problem with the sim i was sent initially
  • oceanmotion 25 Jul 2012 21:15:02 13,405 posts
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    Just stumbled across this lot, sounds too good to be true.

    Is there some catch I'm not seeing like your credit vanishes if you don't top up or something ?

    For me, £10 goodybag would last a month so am I right in thinking, I could run down that £10 credit with texts, calls etc. and delay topping up until later because I think it would end up stacking, use for 3 months, top up each month, I would still have £30 credit for example meaning I would have to blitz it eventually. Right ?
  • THFourteen 25 Jul 2012 21:21:21 29,274 posts
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    I don't think you get ny credit with a £10 goodybag it just covers the Internet, texts and 100minutes that month. Credit for further calls and mms is on top of that.
  • SolidSCB 25 Jul 2012 21:25:56 4,597 posts
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    You won't have to top up any more than £10 a month if you buy the goodybag. I'm on that one and you can't go wrong. The unlimited internet really is unlimited unless you tether your phone or some shit. You can also set up a Top Up/Goodybag purchase system in the background with your bank details so it runs a bit like a contract and just sets up the goodybag automatically each month.
  • oceanmotion 25 Jul 2012 21:56:00 13,405 posts
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    THFourteen wrote:
    I don't think you get any credit with a £10 goodybag it just covers the Internet, texts and 100minutes that month. Credit for further calls and mms is on top of that.
    It must mean the top up service is separate from the goodybag but as long as you buy a goodybag every month you won't be left with nothing.

    I thought the goodybag was the top up service like O2 etc. You pay £10, get mins, text etc. then you can run down your £10 credit. Bit confusing when they advertise it as pay as you go but not quite the same. It's basically a 1 month deal with optional pay as you go.

    Anyway, cracking deal.
  • caligari 25 Jul 2012 22:01:55 16,435 posts
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    Also, I'm pretty sure that you get an extra five pound credit when you first sign-up, which CAN be used after your first goody bag expires.

    Another great aspect is the fact that you get the equivalent of £5.00 free credit for every other person that you get to 'sign up' - I've managed to get another four people onto the network, which also means free GiffGaff to GiffGaff calls.

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