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giffgaff have dropped the idea of changing extra for 4G
Thine Wonk
05-08-2015
Sounds like there will no longer be separate goodybags, I know I found 4G to be no better than 3G due to their speed limiting or capacity, I'm sure this will come as good news to some

https://community.giffgaff.com/t5/An...n=email-OBC400
Thine Wonk
05-08-2015
Also...

We are launching Always On data at £20 so you can benefit from 4G speeds up to 6GB of usage and unlimited access at reduced speeds if you need more

and...

Something else you’ve been telling us is, you want tethering to be available across the range. The introduction of Always On data means we can do that for you too.

The speeds are limited to 256kb/s after 6GB on the £20 plan and tethering will be blocked after the 6GB has been used up as well.
Synthetic42
05-08-2015
Saw this earlier, nice to see them offering it for free, but o2's 4G is no better than 3G most of the time anyway, so seems a moot point really
moox
05-08-2015
Originally Posted by Synthetic42:
“Saw this earlier, nice to see them offering it for free, but o2's 4G is no better than 3G most of the time anyway, so seems a moot point really”

There's no O2 4G around here for tens of miles so I wouldn't notice any difference anwyay. It'd probably be GPRS most of the time, EDGE if I am lucky.

(assuming either GG or O2 haven't had one of their regularly scheduled unscheduled outages)
clewsy
05-08-2015
Someone mentioned prices hiked and data cut in the future on GG - is this part of the plan?
Synthetic42
05-08-2015
Originally Posted by moox:
“There's no O2 4G around here for tens of miles so I wouldn't notice any difference anwyay. It'd probably be GPRS most of the time, EDGE if I am lucky.

(assuming either GG or O2 haven't had one of their regularly scheduled unscheduled outages)”

Oh yeah, I'm sure you'd not get it most places anway, but it's a nice gesture
Minardi
05-08-2015
GG data is so slow and overloaded, this isn't really news is it?
clewsy
05-08-2015
GG just seem to have naff data throughput anyway! Surly getting 256k would be an achievement for most of the times of the day!

Why is it so bad? Do GG just buy such small levels of bandwidth from o2 or do they have users who are that data hungry?
Synthetic42
05-08-2015
Originally Posted by clewsy:
“GG just seem to have naff data throughput anyway! Surly getting 256k would be an achievement for most of the times of the day!

Why is it so bad? Do GG just buy such small levels of bandwidth from o2 or do they have users who are that data hungry?”

They have the lowest priority on the o2 network, which is slow as S**t in the first place
clewsy
05-08-2015
Originally Posted by Synthetic42:
“They have the lowest priority on the o2 network, which is slow as S**t in the first place ”

Well and that as well.

But you know if you were under a mast on GG you will be lucky to get 256kbs out of it.
sdduk
05-08-2015
I don't understand why NiffNaff is so slow because O2 own them you would think they would get the same priority as O2 even Tesco is better signal then Niff naff and O2 own part of them Strange how it all works on O2.
clewsy
05-08-2015
Well doesn't that priority thing only work when masts are congested? I'm assuming it's more to do with the back end kit GG use for data management and how much bandwidth they purchase from 02?
blueacid
06-08-2015
Originally Posted by clewsy:
“Well doesn't that priority thing only work when masts are congested? I'm assuming it's more to do with the back end kit GG use for data management and how much bandwidth they purchase from 02?”

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.
blueacid
06-08-2015
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..
Gigabit
06-08-2015
O2 4G is significantly better than their 3G but the issue remains: when it goes it's back to GPRS...
clewsy
06-08-2015
Remember the speed doesn't really impact your usage, unless you factor in video which ups itself. However on its own 1 hour of 4g usage should be the same as 1 hour of 3g usage ..other than things load a little slower.

The GG setup is strange as is all the kit and support managed by o2 or a separate sub company? There are clear bottle necks on data speed and if they have so many high using customers, then they need to wack up the price to these.
The Sack
06-08-2015
Quote:
“The fact remains though that a small number of Unlimited members still use a huge portion of our available data.”

LMAO féck knows how, they must have a special we get data at more than dial up speed phones.

I still get the mighty Edge all around me, quality speeds indeed.
blueacid
06-08-2015
Originally Posted by clewsy:
“Remember the speed doesn't really impact your usage, unless you factor in video which ups itself. However on its own 1 hour of 4g usage should be the same as 1 hour of 3g usage ..other than things load a little slower.

The GG setup is strange as is all the kit and support managed by o2 or a separate sub company? There are clear bottle necks on data speed and if they have so many high using customers, then they need to wack up the price to these.”

In an hour with a faster connection you would browse more pages though: the time spent waiting would be less. An hour of streaming might use more too, if the bitrate upped itself due to greater bandwidth.
clewsy
06-08-2015
Originally Posted by blueacid:
“In an hour with a faster connection you would browse more pages though: the time spent waiting would be less. An hour of streaming might use more too, if the bitrate upped itself due to greater bandwidth.”

I agree with that but all things equal it uses the same amount of data, just will get the data quicker.
Pedro_C
06-08-2015
GPRS is the only letter I seem to see on giffgaff. O2's not put 3G on the CTIL sites that serve me and in town O2's network seems so congested I have DC-HSDPA for a second or two before it drops me back to GPRS!
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