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Is Giffgaff's proposed 256kbps really a good 3G download speed ?
joeluken
Posts: 250 Forum Member
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http://community.giffgaff.com/t5/News-Announcements/Managing-data-experience-during-busy-hours/m-p/13096395#M57945
"The real benefit of fast speeds is that we can download content to our phones quickly and we can stream videos at the highest possible quality levels, which is great. However, high data speeds also use a large amount of network resource, so at peak times (when the network can become congested), higher data speeds for some of us can lead to lower data speeds for others. During these hours, we’d like to start thinking slightly differently to ensure that as many of us as possible are getting a good download speed.
So, what is a good download speed? We have been trying to answer this question and research has suggested that 256kbps might be the answer. Please see the table below to see what this experience might look like on some popular services. We will be testing this speed soon as well and will be inviting some of you to join us."
Is 256kbps a good download speed for a 3G service ?
"The real benefit of fast speeds is that we can download content to our phones quickly and we can stream videos at the highest possible quality levels, which is great. However, high data speeds also use a large amount of network resource, so at peak times (when the network can become congested), higher data speeds for some of us can lead to lower data speeds for others. During these hours, we’d like to start thinking slightly differently to ensure that as many of us as possible are getting a good download speed.
So, what is a good download speed? We have been trying to answer this question and research has suggested that 256kbps might be the answer. Please see the table below to see what this experience might look like on some popular services. We will be testing this speed soon as well and will be inviting some of you to join us."
Is 256kbps a good download speed for a 3G service ?
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That is slow as hell, a 1mb photo would take 31s to load!?!?!
(maths)
256kbps/8 = 32KB/s.
1000kb = 1mb (Used 1000 as it gives a best case)
1000/32 = 31~ Seconds
The BBC News site is 144kB.
144/32 = 4.5seconds.
While not a massive amount, each link would take 4.5s and completely ruins the flow
Is it April 1st?
On parts of the O2 network, 256k would be an upgrade
The SIM-peddling ultra-misers won't be happy with this.
A random quote from their forum. Are users thinking that this will be a minimum even though they're stuck on GPRS?
Yep,
So most networks can support 4G, with typical speeds of 15Mb/s or more, we're not talking 4G speeds, or even DC-HSPA, or even HSPA+, giffgaff are peddling EDGE speeds!
Welcome back to 2nd generation performance everybody.
Obviously customers will be safe, no doubt migrated to an O2 tariff, but I have to assume the business model where users recommend the service to others is no longer working. Maybe there's not anyone else left to sign up, or people have realised that it's not the same great deal it once was (both from its own changes, to the offers available elsewhere).
Well Samba has gone, Ovivo has gone and now giffgaff looks to be likely to become potentially a heavily restricted EDGE speed service. I wonder if it makes any money and whether Telefonica / o2 have decided to scale back due to the last set of results.
For one thing, those people who used to blitz forums with links (and affiliate codes) are probably unable to do it anywhere near as much, so Giffgaff probably isn't getting anywhere near the same level of sign ups - and most members probably aren't earning as much as they did.
So I think that it will very likely go the same way as Ovivo and Samba, although clearly customers won't just be left without service - they'll be taken over by O2.
Even to a big corporate like Telefonica, that isn't loose change. I'm certainly considering my options, in the event of GiffGaff either closing, or becoming so speed restricted it is unusable.
I don't need unlimited data, but have exceed 1 gig in a month before now, and so my PAYG options are limited to say the least, especially when you consider I can only use O2 or Vodafone for coverage reasons.
38 million certainly isn't lose change at all, especially not when you've got executives at Telefonica seeing big revenue drops.
Hahahaha
Congratulations on "Post of the day"
I nearly spat my Chardonnay all over my monitor!
lycamobile would be your best option then. for £12 per month PAYG you get 10GB of 3G or 4G data depending if you're in a 4G area, including 500 minutes and unlimited tests, they use the O2 network and the 3G network is considerably better on lyca than it is on giffgaff. I made the switch, and was very much worth it.
I've got around £89 payback due next month, once I've got that I'm gone & be requesting my pac code as I've already switched to a Three, which has gone from 0.50mbps during day on giffgaff to around 8- 10mbps during the day on Three then upto 25Mbps during the evening plus 4G is soon to launch round here aswell from Three, with no date set at all yet from O2.
I think the payback is what keeping a few there atm, but there no saying that will also suffer at some point & once that happens the few remaining users will also move onto other networks.
I have a feeling that Telefonica/O2 will close shop on giffgaff in the not to distant future as things have already been set in motion with the limited unusable data speeds.
Yes I have looked at Lycamobile but I fear they might go the same way as ovivo and samba.
To be honest I'm not sure I trust Mvno's any more. I may see if I can get a sim only deal with Voda or O2
Well, Tesco is going nowhere. They're invariably cheaper than o2
Same with Virgin Media.
It's the free or "too good to be true" offers that you want to watch for, paying little or nothing like Samba / Ovivo.
giffgaff's payback achilles heel is that once you have a have bigger user base there are't the same referral opportunities as the ratio of members to people that don't know and want to join changes. Members can't possibly sign up 20 new members like they did in the start because people already know and would have joined if they were going to join.
It's the old pyramid scheme problem - the more members, the more in competition to target a smaller potential signup base = lower and lower referral possibilities. In the early days pyramids do well, but it reaches a point where members opportunity to refer diminishes as the market is saturated with other referrers and the target market is saturated. I'm not calling it a pyramid scheme, but it suffers from the same flaw from a payback point of view.
256 is too slow though. IMHO you're solving the problem of slow downloads by actually ensuring slow downloads.
that having been said. giffgaff is cheap. it's no surprise that the cheapest network can't run the best speeds.
You have the knowledgeable people saying it's the worst idea ever.
Then you have the majority saying it's faster what they get on 3G (and then post a screenshot of a 2G speed test) or saying they don't mind (because they have no idea what a good speed is)
Then you have the people being paid off by giff gaff saying it's the best idea ever.
What a shambles.
Although, to be fair, that post you quote does raise a question that doesn't appear to have been answered - will this affect their gigabags as well? Said gigabags being intended for tethering use or in dongles? 256kbps in a dongle?? Ouch.
Indeed, particularly the BIB. It's a farce. Probably just as well they put some space between all this and April 1st.