Why is giffgaff 3G so poor ?

joeluken · 04/04/14 - 12:35

Many customers on giffgaff are complaining about poor 3G speeds and it appears to be getting worse over the past few months. Strangely customers using o2 and Tesco Mobile sims don't appear to suffer the same degree of data speed degradation in the same places and the same time.

http://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Contribute/what-3g-speeds-do-you-get-has-it-got-worse-lately/td-p/12005946

Despite a 38+ page specific thread asking for answers, countless other threads, posts on the service issue forum, facebook questions, complaints via the formal process and agent contacted giffgaff say there are no service issues and haven't responded beyond this -:(

http://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Contribute/Slow-Data-Speeds-The-giffgaff-Response/td-p/12475512

Any ideas on the issue and is this likely to be a constant going forward and best to avoid ?

jabbamk1 · 04/04/14 - 12:49

Its because O2 have an in house developed priority system for their services.

O2 pay monthly and business are tier 1 priority.
O2 pay as you go and Tesco customers are tier 2 priority.
Giff Gaff and other MVNO's are tier 3 priority.

finbaar · 04/04/14 - 12:50

Maybe GiffGaff users are expecting more than O2 and Tesco users. It is a cheap as chipps service though so it would be foolish to expext a premium experience.

daleski75 · 04/04/14 - 12:51

jabbamk1 wrote: »

Its because O2 have an in house developed priority system for their services.

O2 pay monthly and business are tier 1 priority.
O2 pay as you go and Tesco customers are tier 2 priority.
Giff Gaff and other MVNO's are tier 3 priority.

I always thought the tiering system was just a rumour but obviously not.

joeluken · 04/04/14 - 12:57

jabbamk1 wrote: »

Its because O2 have an in house developed priority system for their services.

O2 pay monthly and business are tier 1 priority.
O2 pay as you go and Tesco customers are tier 2 priority.
Giff Gaff and other MVNO's are tier 3 priority.

I also thought was just sales talk but is that for real because giffgaff denies that's the case. ??

joeluken · 04/04/14 - 13:01

finbaar wrote: »

Maybe GiffGaff users are expecting more than O2 and Tesco users. It is a cheap as chipps service though so it would be foolish to expext a premium experience.

I agree it would be naive but I'm not sure the ultra slow daytime 3G speed is what many expected.

finbaar · 04/04/14 - 13:06

joeluken wrote: »

I agree it would be naive but I'm not sure the ultra slow daytime 3G speed is what many expected.

I speak as someone who is in the process of switching one phone from O2 to GG. But as it is my wifes phone and she uses less than 250mb a month it won't be a problem.

binary · 04/04/14 - 13:10

Like finbaar says, sounds like people are expecting too much. o2's 3G network isn't the greatest as it is - with GG punters apparently getting lower priority, and smartphone ownership and usage going up, something has to give.

(I wonder if the Goodybag offerings might get realigned soon - e.g. with the £12 unlimited data either discontinued or price hiked significantly, and with another level such as 3GB added. With GiffGaff, there's no guarantee of price stability/continuity month to month.)

joeluken · 04/04/14 - 13:18

finbaar wrote: »

I speak as someone who is in the process of switching one phone from O2 to GG. But as it is my wifes phone and she uses less than 250mb a month it won't be a problem.

I think it's more of any issue for those attracted by the unlimited 3G data goodybags who actually want to use it more.

I notice the 4G goodybags are not unlimited (2Gb and then £20 per GB) so perhaps the choice is unlimited but potentially unusable or usable but limited.

Ultraman1966 · 04/04/14 - 13:22

O2 3G coverage is also poop so what makes you think they got phat pipes to transport all that data?

daleski75 · 04/04/14 - 13:41

@OP Read through one of the threads which you posted and it looks like a lot of users are complaining that O2, Tesco in the exact same phone is way faster or a more consistent speed than Giffgaff which adds a lot of weight to the argument that giffgaff are tier 3 and a very low priority on the O2 network.

Bill Clinton · 04/04/14 - 13:53

I was thinking of joining GiffGaff for the unlimited internet but this is making me think twice, I was using 3G for things like streaming The Chase and Coronation Street to listen to in the car whilst driving and for TuneIn, if it is going to drop out or refuse to connect because of things like this it won't be a goer. But Orange who I'm currently with are incredibly stingy about the data allowance but perhaps now have the best network due to the investment, the best they could offer me was £17.99/month for 4GB but now it looks like it might be an idea to go with that.

Three · 04/04/14 - 14:10

It's humorous that giffgaff still deny it.

jabbamk1 · 04/04/14 - 14:46

What I said is true,

I think I was one of the first people to find out about it.
There is a post from a couple of years ago on here and another forum about it.

People on the giff gaff forum have used my quote on there.

dosanjh1 · 04/04/14 - 15:45

I've been with Giff Gaff about 6 months and O2 for about 4 years before that, I've found the speeds virtually comparable - a slow but consistent 1 or 2 mb download.

I switched to 3 for a month and got wildly fluctuating speeds from sod all to 3 / 4 mb (mostly sod all though)

Zee_Bukhari · 04/04/14 - 16:01

so that means lycamobile are tier 3 too?

Three · 04/04/14 - 16:08

Zee_Bukhari wrote: »

so that means lycamobile are tier 3 too?

Probably.

joeluken · 04/04/14 - 16:20

jabbamk1 wrote: »

What I said is true,

I think I was one of the first people to find out about it.
There is a post from a couple of years ago on here and another forum about it.

People on the giff gaff forum have used my quote on there.

That certainly fits with the cases were 02 and Tesco appear consistently faster when measured in the same place/time during daytime.

Thanks for the info.

AlecR · 04/04/14 - 16:21

The answer: because it uses O2's early 2000 3G.

joeluken · 04/04/14 - 16:59

AlecR wrote: »

The answer: because it uses O2's early 2000 3G.

Spotted this just posted on another forum but I'm not familiar with the measuring app and don't know if I'm comparing like with like with speedtest. I've never experienced anything like 69.83Mbps down on 3G.

"

Stinja, post: 20544370, member: 27220 wrote:

I'm on GiffGaff, and (subjectively) speeds do seem slower when i want to use 3G.

Testing just now with speedof.me:

wifi =

19.33Mbps / 6.67Mbps (down/up)

10ms latency

GG 3G (H+ full bars) =

69.83Mbps / 1.76Mbps (down/up)

119ms latency

GG 3G (H+ full bars) =

49.4Mbps / 1.74Mbps (down/up)

190ms latency

I'll try again at home...

AlecR · 04/04/14 - 17:08

There is no way that that is O2 3G.

WellHiddenMark · 04/04/14 - 17:09

joeluken wrote: »

Spotted this just posted on another forum but I'm not familiar with the measuring app and don't know if I'm comparing like with like with speedtest. I've never experienced anything like 69.83Mbps down on 3G.

"

That's got to be an mistake. The fastest theoretical speed of any 3G network is 42Mbps - this is DC-HSPA+.

The maximum you'll get in reality is about 17Mbps

I doubt you'd get much above 50Mbps on 4G either.

joeluken · 04/04/14 - 17:25

WellHiddenMark wrote: »

That's got to be an mistake. The fastest theoretical speed of any 3G network is 42Mbps - this is DC-HSPA+.

The maximum you'll get in reality is about 17Mbps

I doubt you'd get much above 50Mbps on 4G either.

Yes I'm a bit confused but then that's not too difficult.

GeordiePaul · 04/04/14 - 17:27

I've always found it fine. Might be a matter of expectations but I was with Vodafone before that so no wonder I didn't expect much....

WellHiddenMark · 04/04/14 - 18:30

GeordiePaul wrote: »

I've always found it fine. Might be a matter of expectations but I was with Vodafone before that so no wonder I didn't expect much....

When you have Vodafone 3G coverage, it's very good indeed. I've regularly got 10Mbps downloads in urban areas. Unfortunately, this coverage is rare indeed.

At least with Vodafone, you know you have the ability to make and receive phone calls reliably.

Three · 04/04/14 - 19:03

WellHiddenMark wrote: »

When you have Vodafone 3G coverage, it's very good indeed. I've regularly got 10Mbps downloads in urban areas. Unfortunately, this coverage is rare indeed.

At least with Vodafone, you know you have the ability to make and receive phone calls reliably.

Not really. You can easily get a 4 bar 3G signal on Vodafone and see constant page time outs.

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Why is giffgaff 3G so poor ?

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