GG 4g speeds are terrible 2Mb, so unless you want cheap o2 service there are better deals out there.

Slow like dial up network, meaningless even if they give out unlimited data it'll take ages to load even Google!

So... £7.50 for 1GB of data? What's the deal? What am I missing?

personally on giffgaff (but have wifi at home & work so mainly just for commuting or browsing if out) I dont watch videos or stream on these occasions as no real need, sometimes listen to the radio. but giffgiff ok for me.
thanks op for the heads up glad to say i'll be able to save myself £2 dropping from the £12 to £10 package with the increase in 1gb :grin: yay
i know some people will say that you can get cheaper & faster but most of those would require you to sign into a contract & at this time I just dont want to do that.

Excellent news always use the £7.50 tariff but always end up going slightly over before my months are up.

People seem to exaggerate, speeds are fine and im usually using my data in the middle of rural Wales.

Just adding to the previous comments that if you want data then avoid like the plague, 4G speed on giffgaff is a complete lie.

Speeds are absolutely fine. People who complain of speed will get the same with O2 as I have tried both and both are equally good with respect to signal strength. :smile:

HOT for the prices the goodybags are and the value they offer :smile:

Been with GG many years and I dual SIM with my work O2. I rarely stream HD or anything high bandwidth but can't say I notice any difference between my two sims on general browsing. Don't get me wrong there are times that it's frustratingly slow, even with a 4g signal, but I find switching SIM makes no odds on such occasions.

Great list of the benefits. If it is price and you can get a contract then I have just done a 12 month at £16pm all text and call and 15gb data. With £100 amazon voucher also given. Looking for a new deal but all these goody bags are worse than me continuing on my current deal.

If you're OK with Three coverage, TPO is £4 for 1 GB: thepeoplesoperator.com/sim…ing

More than content with giffgaff. Love the fact you can get a goodybag whenever you want, no hassle starting or ending monthly contracts, decent value all-around.

Must admit I don't use the data very often, only occasionally, and I find it adequate. So, if you are dependent on it out and about then yes perhaps not the best for your needs.

Giffgaff got greedy ,over charged customers and now trying to win them back, no thanks lovely jubbly

GG 4G Slow AF

Quick check of my 4g speed- can’t complain from my experience

Do not go to giffgaff was with them for years moved to 3 £20 30 day sim- 30gb and unlimited min and texts and that’s also including go binge and feel and home and tethering!

Giffgaff gaff £20 always on data good luck watching a YouTube video let alone a Facebook one...

Giffgaff used to be great years ago when it was £15gb all you can eat data and fast 3G now it’s 4G it’s even worse..

Trial it then let us know how you get on.

Been with giffgaff a few years and happy enough with them, data speeds OK but not fantastic. I like the flexibility and they were at one time very competitive, think they've fallen behind now and I'm looking at Smarty as an alternative just struggling to find any feedback from users as they are so new.

Just checked my speed on GG 4G ... 18Mbs down and 7Mbs up - not bad !

They were getting left behind. Hands forced.

People saying it's fine for them. It depends on how congested the mast you're connected too is. Ofcourse, it's no great surprise in the middle of rural Wales or at midnight on a weekday your speeds will be quite different to the middle of London at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon. Think about it :wink:

Generally speaking, VMNO's get lower priority on network bandwidth. So if the cell site isn't busy then speeds should be good enough (though often are capped to stop them being as good as the main network), but if the cell is busy then the main network (O2 in this case) will get priority and therefore better speeds. If the speeds are 'good enough' for you will depend on your usage, and YMMV as always. In some cases it could render the VMNO connection unusable.

I would never rely on a VMNO if I cared about - or had usage that depended on high bandwidth. For general use I'm sure it's fine 99% of the time though.

Sadly no change for £5 goodybag. 500MB would be prefect.

Vodafone

ID Mobile

I got that Argos deal 500mb each month for a year for a fiver and put it in the other side of my redmi note 4 can't beat it. On average O2 is miles slower than ee/three

I left giffgaff for plusnet and best decision ever. Giffgaff used to be great then suddenly the speeds were poor. Outages costing myself work on the network. Then the internet speed got worse and the goody bag become poor value.

Compared giffgaff to O2, they really throttle giffgaff round where I live, it's not even that fast on O2. Giffgaff is about 2mb/s on a good day. Not very usable.

Slow speeds and no customer service and most of all expensive for what you get compared to other SIM only deals.

Might as well is smarty, twice as much data.

.

Just left that network cause of the slow connection. Don't get tempted by low rates

I'm on giffgaff speeds are absolutely fine

Speeds are fine to me, generally not bad for the price you pay

I loved GG when they first arrived. Used them for 2 years and got much of my family and friends on... But now they're just like the rest but with less customer support. Moved to 3 on a real unlimited data plan and am happy. They have flaws, but nothing like GG

Nahhhh, GG are OK for speed BUT it depends where you are in the country as always!

Im East Coast area and , yes, ee get up to 60Mbps however GG/O2 are running at a steady 12-15Mbps.... soooo personally ill stick with them , especially now that my £10 gets me 3GB, TBH with all the WiFi hotspots around in pubs/bars/restaurants im rarely without a WiFi signal so my data conn. is purely backup - i may even move down a bag to £7.50 for 2GB!

I'm happy with GiffGaff but it's disappointing there's no increase in data to £5 GoodyBag as 100mb is tiny even for low usage. 250-500mb would be ideal.

Speed test on Sim only unlimited on Three Network. Normally get 25+mbps on upload though

I'm not downloading files when using mobile data so speed has never been an issue with me on GG.

Loads Whatsapp messages perfectly quickly :stuck_out_tongue:

Was with giffgaff for years until they sadly got left behind by almost every other network and I think they’re New offers are too little too late.Agree on speeds on 4g there data speed is awful getting 4 or 5 times faster on virgin mobile

I think that's a MUCH better deal!

£10 for 5gb on plusnet or was

who is using giffgaff nowadays? since we have so many reasonable sim only plan to choose! surprise they still operate

I’ve had giffgaff for a few months now no problem with speeds, I don’t know what people are talking about heat

there is another issue too. If you are abroad you get free roamin.... 3G!

as soon as the iPhone X is released i'll say goodbye to GiffGaff. SLOW. 3G on roaming. Not good value for money anymore.

To be a giffgaff user you need to value:
- Flexibility: Load plans anytime you want, no direct payments no worries with overcharging. You can delay the renewal of your plan when you are oversees. No questions asked
- Freedom: Leave ANY time you want, without calls to customer service, 1 month notices and penalties. No contract whatsoever. You can just go and come back anytime you want.

So please stop comparing data speeds with other companies that trap you into long term contracts violating your freedom with infinite pages of terms and conditions that are always against you.

If you are comparing them to a dial up connection then you are definitely exaggerating :grin: .

I travel between the city and countryside alot as I travel to work, I tend to get mostly a 4G signal with drops to 3G...it is just when I am in certain buildings have I had it drop below 3G.

They suit me and my needs and have never had an issue, I am surprised a lot of people have.

To be a giffgaff user you need to be retired, they are the only ones who have the time to wait for a signal.

I still use Giffgaff because I like how i'm guaranteed not to pay silly prices if i go over my data or use premium numbers by mistake. i.e. If my balance is zero and I have auto-top up disabled, i never pay more, guaranteed. Which alternatives offer that safe of mind?

I can also vouch for the poor speeds, less than 1Mbps during day, literally as the clock struck 12am, shot up too 48Mbps, then straight back down to 1Mbps at 7am, there is definitely some kind of brutal traffic management within GG and was the reason i left...

This was the reason I left GG because of the miniscule data allowances. Plusnet's deals are still better value even after this adjustment.

You need to be a special to use their network:
1) no support
2) the prices are more expensive than any other network
Try £20 deals on Three or EE network, better and more data without any fuss or limitations.

I do remember using GiffNaff and had issue with access to internet even though had 5 bars of 4G, the network is sucks!

On BT mobile.

Lucky you lot with all your fast data. I don't even get 3g in deepest Devon. Think yourselves lucky!

How did you do a side by side test on 2 networks on the same phone :smile:

Im with giffgaff and to play pokemon go its pants “/ the game is pants too lol . I need o2 network any one have some recommendations?

How do you overcharge customers when it's a set price?

If anything their competitors upped their game to offer better value and people left. So now giffgaff are upping their game. That's how competition works

Why is this hot exactly

£7.50 for 1GB of data??? WHY IS THIS SO HOT?! It's a terrible deal. I think some of you are blindly loyal to GiffGaff.

Me too. :grin:

Just tried a Speed test on Virgin 4G

I remember the good ol' days when giffgaff used to be £10 for unlimited data....

I'm after a SIMO for my son. Read people saying about plusnet so just been on their website. Is 4gb the most data they do? I'm after at least 10gb for my son.

1GB for £7.50.

It's like we're going back in time.

GG used to be great. I was with them for about 10 years but left last month. I was paying £7.50 for 750mb of data and 250mins of calls. I'm now with Virgin with 2gb of data and 2500mjns of calls for £5. GG took their eye off the ball.

Just checked my GiffGaff 4g up/down.
on Google Speed test I got 32.4mb / 5.90
on Speedtest.co.uk I got 12.88Mb / 4.62.

I like giffgaffs online concept and not having to ring up, but unfortunately the speed is just too slow - I do keep a sim card as a back up though

Giffgaff was great...back in 2012

I don't get it, they have no call centre so very very few staff. Why aren't they super cheap? Hardly any wages to pay... It doesn't make sense to me

always had good coverage with GG. Just ran the speed test got 20.5Mbps down, 12.5Mbps up. not too bad.

GiffGaff is no longer value for money as it used to be

I should add, I left GiffGaff due to very slow speeds compared to other O2 MVNOs.


Seems like nothing has changed in the last 5 years.

Does GG still have no customer support ? You have to rely on the GG community forums.

GiffGaff £7.50 goody bag
1GB data 250 minutes Unlimited texts

Plusnet deal looks better and cheaper

Yup. And people think it's a hot deal. What's happened on here?

I would never get anywhere near even 500GB data anyway, despite heavy phone use.
I've lately found GiffGaff 4G speeds to have improved a lot, and it really only gets slow when I'm in a busy place where there are crowds. However, I also have a work mobile on a business contract, and that also slows down under the same circumstances.

*Speed restrictions apply to our Always On data. After 6GB of data used you'll experience a reduced data speed of‌ 384kbps from 8am to Midnight. You may notice that activities which require high amounts of data, like HD video streaming, will be slower.
LOL no thanks!

You really should... I normally get 60Mbps+

Giffgaff is worst after freedom pop

I have only read the first few comments but I have been relly pleased with GiggGaff. Unlike other companies they have never overcharged me I have never had any unexpected charges in fact because it is PAYG unless you have cash on your account you can not be charged or fall foul of any phone scams. I am aware thta some rolling 1 moth contracts offer more but I am inclined to pay a bit extra for peace of mind.

This isnt news

Same over here, the £6 deal I moved onto is almost as good as their £10 deal and now I'm seeing alot of people on this £7 deal which absolutely destroys their £12 deal lol

Giffgaff used to be great, but a few months ago my phone broke and I found a deal with the same amount of data, texts and minutes, including a smartphone which would have cost £180 alone, for only £10 per month (the same amount that I was paying for giffgaff). I'm usually against buying stuff on credit as it usually costs more and means people buy something they can't really afford but this saving for undeniable and meant that I didn't need to buy a £180 phone. The total cost of this is £240 so minus the phone, i'm basically paying £60 for 2 years data, texts and minutes - 1/4 of the price of a giffgaff contract. I'm with talkmobile if anyones interested, recently got upgraded to 4G( even though I initially paid for a 3G contract as it was cheaper) and bought on sale through mobilephonesdirect.

Most of the people on here are saying there speed is Crap they all can't be wrong i use to get full bars when i was with them and most of the time i could not connect because it would say no connection and that was with full bars so i stand by what i said they are like the old dial up with out the noise :joy:

Slightly unrelated, but what are Plusnet's 4g speeds like? I was with Life Mobile (3g only), which was then bought by Plusnet. Still on 3g, paying £5.95 for 1.5Gb data. Speed is good on 3g - last night i was getting 20Mbps download. Thinking about going for their £7 2.5Gb deal on 4g. Anyone able to check the 4g speed on Plusnet?

As few have said, started out a smart budget virtual but got very greedy in a short space of time, that with poor network reliability and even poorer speed really put lots of people off. I was with GG since their inception when they had real value for money plans, now they really are bottom of the pile. Pity really.

I don't think it matters if you get 3g or 4g on giffgaff - it all seems to go the same speed - if they could sort the speed it would be a great network

EE charge £18.99 on a 30 day contract for 1GB of data
Three charge £13 for a 30 day contract for 1GB of data
O2 charge £18 for a 30 day contract with 1GB of data
And so on

I think that's the deal you're missing...

It's really not...

I took a look at that deal because I was considering changing but that deal is only an offer which ends in 8 days. After that their normal plans seem the same as GiffGaff £5 for 500mb, £7.50 for 1GB.

I guess the signal is just Awful everywhere except Wales then...I guess we got to have something going for us. :P

Well yeah, but those deals are a complete joke, given that you can get 30GB for the same money. No-one in their right mind would take those, it's not a true comparison.
I'm not saying these are all brilliant either, but surely make more sense than £7.50... I don't know. 1GB for £7.50 just doesn't seem anything to write home about.

Smarty are doing 2GB and unlimited calls for that, and they refund what you don't use.

Agreed. I was with Giffgaff for a long time due to price but their speeds were horrendous. It was basically like dial up. Moved to three in the last month and notice a dramatic increase in speed.

Not really much benefit to giffgaff these days when other networks are providing similar deals but with decent speeds.

This was the package I was on. I seemed to use up that initial 6gb so quickly when I was on giffgaff but since I moved to 3 I don't even use much over 6gb each month. The contract i am on now is £18 for 30gb with three, also got £75 cash back using topcashback. Giffgaff got greedy and didn't move with the times.

Where can you get 30GB for the same money? On a 1-month rolling contract - not a 12 month fixed term.
That's the part most people forget.

And that, technically, GiffGaff is "technically" PAYG with online top-up - not a contract (whereby you are credit checked etc.)

Kevin Keegan.

I used to be with giffgaff made a good amount of payback for about 5 years.. I left them for plusnet who were much cheaper..

Giff gaff are con artists who sell you an all you can eat data plan then start crying if you use too much data. They ban you from your next goody bag. MORONS!

A whole one gig, what on earth will I do with it????

I am on GG just tested the speed and it came out at 14.75 Mbps I must be lucky? GG is great as far as I am concerned never had a problem

I left them last month now with smarty unlimited mins and texts and 4gb data for £10 a month

Giffgaff speeds are crap been with them since they started now all they are, are greedy buggers their plans are worst than any other network and have no support can't get my head around that

Not cheap anymore

I left giff gaff a few years ago because of the slow unusable data. I've been back with them for a few months after leaving EEand the data is now fine, at least in the places that I've been!

Giff gaff did get greedy, just like all the major providers. To get any decent amount of data, they all rip us off, but people seem willing to pay.

Giff gaff is not the best by a long chalk, but if you can manage with relatively low data, like me..then it's cost effective and the flexibility is appealing.

I can understand the valid negative views from some though, and if the service falls short for me then I will jump ship!

Any extra data for no extra cost is welcome.

I have used gifffaff over the years as my backup data sim2 (I use it mainly for calls only). And have used double speed 4G EE as my main data sim.

All I can say is... Gifffaff data is TOTALLY RUBBISH. It's not simply an o2 vs EE network, the fact is they capped o2 data. I dare say it's worse than dial up over the years.

Meanwhile the calls are not great.. people often can't hear me ... So now I am on Plusnet .. calls are a lot better , data not as fast as EE double speed but I can live with 20 to 30 Mbps rather than 60 plus .

So grass is a lot greener ..

I mean for the prices you quoted from EE et al, not for £7.50..

Still get a better deal on ID Mobile for me

ID: £5, 500 mins, 5000 texts, 1GB Data
GiffGaff: £7.50, 250 mins, unlimited texts, 1GB Data (Previously 750mb)

Not to mention the worst data speeds I’ve ever had on a network.

GiffGaff’s 4G was like 2G, could barely watch a YouTube video.

I love Giff gaff and never had a problem with the data speed. I guess it must depend on where you live because EE and Vodafone are utterly useless round here! Giffgaff and O2 definitely rule the roost.

Cut the middleman, Slowest ever internet speed from O2/Giffgaff, had in the past ditch for EE

check the 3 Network deal - £9 per month 4GB data and the rest is everything unlimited.

uswitch.com/mob…2b/

I think it really depends where and when u are. I've a moto g, so only h+, but sometime I can load pages or google map faster than my wife and sons who have s7 and s8 on Vodafone.

I've been on Giffgaff for the past few years now and bought their £20 Goodbag as I use lots of data.

Can anyone reccomend me somewhere new with a 30 day contract?

Plusnet - 5GB | Unlim. Texts + Mins - £10

Three - 8GB | 600 Mins + Unlim. Texts - £13

ID Mobile - 6GB | 2000 Mins + 5000 Texts + Data Rollover - £15

Smarty - 8GB | Unlim. Texts + Mins + Unused data is converted into discount on next bill - £15

EE speeds are ok, but indoors connectivity might be patchy sometimes.

Some people are asserting that giffgaff speeds are poor, in the area of 2Mb etc, well I'm not saying that they are lying but there must be some problem because I'm sitting here testing the speed on giffgaff and I only have 2 bars indoors but Ookla says 21Mb/s.

So are they slow or not? Could be the time of day, but I'll have another go later and also another try when I'm outside and closer to a cell station and have 4 or 5 bars, I expect it to be much faster than 21Mb/s.

If you have speed problems on GG then replace your SIM, it's really easy.

Speeds can be slow due to a number of factors.

Location, environment, indoors or outdoors, the phone you are using, distance from a mast etc.

Unfortunately replacing the SIM wont fix the giffgaff speed issue, I got alot of people move to giffgaff and then over time they have all left due to the speed. Some great speeds can be had at 1am, so if you work shifts it would be worth considering

I remember when £10 was unlimited data on giffgaff, those were the days

I tested my 4G with Vodafone and get 150 Mbps, housemate gets 15 Mbps. This is repeated in multiple other locations. After cashback, I pay £10.75/month for 16GB with Voda, which I think beats pretty much ever GG tariff.

Used to be with gg, but they're just not as competitive any more.

Well because of this thread I've been testing speeds periodically throughout the day and it did go down to 9Mb/s at one point in the town centre, but mostly above 20.

Honestly, 9Mb/s is quite fast enough for anything I do.

I didn't say they weren't?

I don't think they got greedy I used them for 3/4 years and prices never changed its just they never increased data in bundles in years so the price which had looked so good 4 years ago gradually started looking expensive
I moved to three a year ago 4gb plan for £6.70 after quidco confirmed

Contrary to some of the positive comments above. At least for me where I live the service and its speed are poor.

Plus net off of uswitch 1500mins unlimited text 2.5gb data =£7mth
uswitch.com/mob…ls/
Or for a couple of quid more 3 do Unlimted mins unlimted text 4gb data =9

Long time user of Giffgaff, and have to agree as a service I do not think its delcined I thin the competiton has caught up and offers better alternatives, only reason I stay with Giffgaff now, is I finally got majority of my close family to move over to giffgaff, so calls are free. Plus I drive short distance for my commute then am fortuante to have Wifi at work - so internet speed for most of the time is a non issue for me.

I've always been with Giffgaff because I've thought that SIM only deals with other networks - especially where you have a 12-monthly contract - might open me up to extra charges. Giffgaff works solely on whether you have credit on your account (I don't randomly get a charge for something that shows on my bank statement). Have I been suckered in to the marketing then?

edit: was on live chat with EE and they said "premium numbers" would be charged automtically from my account. Definitely don't get that with Giffgaff - payment for that comes from a top-up pot that you control.

I've been checking my speeds on GG all the time since reading all these complaints, I must have used up a load of data doing it, but I wanted to know for sure.

No problems with speeds found. Slowest 7Mb/s, I've also had a 9Mb/s but they usually come up at 20/21, I've have a couple higher, highest was 33.

I expect that tomorrow morning, if I am in the busy town centre, I will see some real slow down, but I will also check my work mobile contract phone I think it will also be slow.

All though ur not complaining that's quite slow for 4g should be say 30mpbs instead that's almost same as 3g

Yep I left because of that and slow speeds, three is much better value when you get a good deal.

thats more a benefit of payg in general. every other payg sim with any network offers the benefit of not being able to be grossly overcharged

giffgaff still suck IMO

Been with giffgaff since it started, went downhill every year with price increases and data speed restrictions. Sad really, was a great service now unusable and overpriced.

How exactly is it unusable?
It's just that I use it every day and I'm wondering what I'm doing wrong as I find using it is quite easy.

I’ve been with giffgaff for a couple of years now, I got all the family on it and it provided a bit of top up/cash back for each of us. The biggest advantage for me is that giffgaff to giffgaff calls are free.

Speeds havent really been an issue and I’m pretty tech savvy (Work in IT).

I’m sure there are better deals out there but I like that you can stop/start and change goodie bags. I was abroad last year and was roaming, my data was ate in minutes but it only cost me what I had in topup, it was a useful cap.

Im on the £10 p/m deal,
500m 3GB data unlimited txt.

Id like more minutes but 90% of the people I call are on giffgaff so those are free.

Added some speedtests done just now.

Slow 4g and no customer support means no thanks.Naff gaff used to be cheap but now deals like i.d 5gb for £10 a month and faster 4g is a winner.

I cant find it. I can see £5 but that is data only no calls.

It's slow, the £20 plan is a joke as it's not really unlimited. It's like dial up, honestly get a sim only one month contract with EE or even O2 and you'll be able to tell the difference.

And the deal your missing is Plusnet 30 day contracts, they blow gg out of the water and there's actually customer support. L

Where do yyou live? i might get ID

Don't know how this has so much heat. Data speeds are terrible. No value in improved goody bags compared to other mobile company's now. Giffgaff where decent years ago but sadly have got to greedy and been left behind.

London but not sure I'd rec ID Mobile right now as I've seen they've increased all their prices and removed some of the good tiers they had. The one I have right now is 4GB + 1000 mins + 5000 texts (Unlimited tbh) for £9 (no longer available), with data rollover in comparison their current offering is 3GB + 500 mins + 5000 texts for £10 which used to be 5GB + 1000 mins + 5000 texts for £10. Have a look for yourself though, depends how much data you want.

Thanks for that, i would need at least 20Gb as my job requires me to travel a lot up and down i tend to use a lot for nav/gps and entertainment videos on trains, so i guess I shall pass iD mobile but that is great speed for them.

why would I need more than say 25meg download and 5meg upload? Not like on a phone you download 50gig games - surely even 10meg is sufficent for decent streaming of movies and audio ? Or is this more for people who use phone as a mobile hotspot - in which case only worth discussing unlimited data speeds and capping rules

I've got another phone on a business monthly contract, it also slows down in busy places. My Giffgaff generally gives very decent 4G speeds, as I've described earlier in the thread.

But the definition of "unusable" cannot apply to something that hundreds of thousands of people use everyday.

giffgaff operate just like their parent o2/telefonica over priced and offer poor bundles.

they have not moved on with the times but know a bunch of people have no other options due to signal issues on the other networks.

I remember years ago when i had the £5 bundle you would gain minutes when people called you it was good idea but they removed that and looks like replaced it with lol 100mb

Terrible 4g speed but very cheap intern. calls. 5p vs £1 with other providers.