Giffgaff UK Refreshes 4G Mobile Tariffs with Double the Data
Mobile operator giffgaff has once again (they seem to do it each year) refreshed their range of 4G mobile “goodybag” plans by effectively doubling the data (mobile broadband) allowances on three of their mid-range tariffs, which for example means that for £15 per month you’ll now get 15GB instead of 8GB.
“What do you need to do? Nothing. We’ll apply the new data amounts to all £10, £12, and £15 goodybags bought or set to recur on or after 14th August 2019. That also means if your goodybag is queued to start on or after 14th August, it’ll come with the new data amounts. If you’re on one of these goodybags, you’ll receive an email confirming the changes over the next couple of days,” said giffgaff.
| Price per month | Data | Minutes | Texts |
| £6 | 500 MB | 300 | 500 |
| £8 | 2 GB | 500 | Unlimited |
| £10 | 6 GB (up from 3GB) | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| £12 | 10 GB (up from 4GB) | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| £15 | 15 GB (up from 8GB) | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| £20 | 40 GB offer (normally 20GB) | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| £25 | Always On* | Unlimited | Unlimited |
We should point out that the “Always On” plan isn’t quite the same as a true “unlimited” tariff, like on Three UK or Vodafone, in that after gobbling 40GB of data you’ll experience a reduced data speed of 384Kbps from 8am to Midnight. So you’ll still be able to go online, albeit at a slower speed than a copper ADSL line from nearly 20 years ago. Yay. Giffgaff is an O2 based Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO).
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook and Linkedin.
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1p mobile for me- 19 year old nokia no data/internet (disabled) – phone calls and texts are enough for me when i can be bothered to switch the handset on.
I was using 1p Mobile as a backup at work where my Three doesn’t work well. It’s was great until one day about £8 of credit was gobbled up! I did a check on the short code that had billed me and it was a text scam that I had not subscribed too, but yet they were able to charge me.
I complained to 1p Mobile and showed them evidence online of 1000’s of other people who had been rogue billed by this company but they showed no interest! They also refused to block premium rate numbers/texts which nearly all UK networks now allow you to do, so I moved back to giffgaff 🙂
Maybe I’m on my own here, but I don’t think MVNOs or any MNO should be allowed to throttle speeds, or if they do then no lower than 1mbps. 384Kbps is completely unacceptable.
I agree with you, It’s 2019.
It should be 2 Mbps minimum
They could simply cut you off when you reach your usage allowance.
They could charge per Mb used after reaching the data limit like other networks do.
I think it’s perfectly acceptable to allow unlimited use after the data allowance has been used, throttled during the day.
With Giffgaff anyone who reaches the 40GB limit is free to start a new GoodyBag straight away and return to full speed throughout the day.
Seems fair to me.
Its odd how O2 and its MVNOs are managing to resist any full speed ‘unlimited data’ option. They must be losing customers to Three and Vodafone in droves.
GiffGaff lost me to Three 3 years ago. Never looked back.
Same here although it was Giffgaff – Smarty – Three (because Smarty doesn’t have WiFi calling and volte).
@Fanrizio… It makes me laugh that Smarty, created by Three, don’t have access to VoLTE/Supervoice & WiFi calling but yet the Carphone Warehouse’s MVNO iD Mobile does have access to Three’s VoLTE Network! And WiFi calling I think.
I don’t think O2’s Networks [3G & 4G] are all that capable. Family members who live in Cardiff always use my WiFi when visiting me as it’s much faster than 4G! [I live just outside the city] & my speeds are only 30-36mbps Down.
Looks expensive to me considering true unlimited data can be had from other operators for about £20, albeit locked into a contract for 12 months.
Have you tried said offer? It’s slow and bad quality – mind you giffgaff is the scrapings at the bottom of the O2 barrel from my experience
@ Sarah,
It really depends on how congested your local mast is. I am paying £20.80 for Vfe unlimited phone sim I use in a router. It is OK, the speed is quite variable – not sure how much is congestion versus weak signal as I am 4km from the mast. It is very cheap Internet.
C
£18.75 for smarty unlimited data
That one used to be £20. But then, they’ve quietly raised prices for the two lowest goodybags, they used to be £5 and £7.50
My wife uses Giffgaff with no issues at all. Most of the time she is connected to WiFi, therefore her 2GB limit is perfectly adequate.
The one benefit they really have going for them for us is the cost of their international calls. Just have a look at how much they charge per minute to call a country in Europe, I cannot find any other deal that would beat them.