Originally Posted by blueacid:
“It's probably both.
If there is greater demand than a mast is able to supply, I've read that the pecking order is O2 Contract, O2 PAYG, Tesco, GiffGaff.
If the mast is able to keep up with the demand, I suspect that the sum of all GiffGaff customers data is subject to bottlenecks elsewhere - be it the amount of bandwidth purchased, the equipment they use or whatever. So for this you're presumably at the mercy of all the other giffgaff users in aggregate.
Put simply, the odds are stacked up against you.”
Actually, taken from the link in the original post:
"The Always On goodybag offers members 4G speeds on the first 6GB of data used and then access to unlimited data at a restricted speed from 8am until midnight. We have chosen a speed of 256 kilobits per second that allows members to still use regular data services whilst reducing demand on the network."
The fact they seemingly aren't bothered overnight does perhaps back up that they pay for peak capacity rather than per MB: overnight the usage is probably nowhere near the peak, so it makes no odds to them. A bit like some ADSL ISPs were/are.
I guess then GiffGaff unlimited is very useful if you use a lot of data and are awake late at night (security guard, lorry driver working in the night streaming music - provided there's 3g/4g where you drive!)
The fact tethering switches off at the 6GB point is, I presume, a measure used to prevent people using the connection as their primary internet connection.
I wonder if there's much demand for the ability to apply the 256kbit throttle to your account selectively to avoid using the 6GB allowance: 256kbit is possibly enough to stream audio, which is something I do quite a bit with my Three data allowance..