Mobile Network Comparison

Earlier this month, Giffgaff announced the details of their long awaited BlackBerry support. Finally, UK mobile phone users will be able to take advantage of push email, free BBM and BlackBerry internet services on the best value mobile network and completely free from the constraints of lengthy contracts. The service is due to launch on 8th December 2011. (edit: This was later delayed until 1st February 2012 for further testing).

Giffgaff’s intention to bring BlackBerry support to the network had been announced months and months ago but with the furious work to push out other projects such as data-only Gigabags, the amazing Hokey Cokey goodybag and data roaming it got left behind. Even worse than that, bringing BlackBerrys to Giffgaff actually got quietly delayed to 2012 at one point and it seemed nobody could be sure that it would actually ever happen. Thankfully for those of you constantly glued to your “CrackBerry” on other networks, they got past all the technical hitches and are currently in the final stages of user testing.

BlackBerry support will be offered through Giffgaff’s increasingly-maligned “Goodybag” architecture. It will be a monthly add-on (the name hasn’t been confirmed yet) and, at present, it must be bought with another goodybag. Giffgaff haven’t confirmed why this is yet but it may well be due to the technical restrictions of the Goodybag system.

Here’s the lowdown on all aspects of the new BlackBerry add-on:

How much will BlackBerry support cost?

In what must be the cheapest offer available anywhere in the country, BlackBerry support costs only £3 per month.

Do you have to buy another goodybag as well?

Yes, BlackBerry support only works with another goodybag.

Can you buy it while another goodybag is active?

Unfortunately no – the BlackBerry add-on must be bought at the same time as the goodybag.

Can you buy the BlackBerry add-on from your credit balance?

You can buy the BlackBerry add-on from either your credit balance or via a debit/credit card or even with an e-top-up voucher. You just have to make sure that you buy both the BlackBeryy add-on and the Giffgaff goodybag from the same payment source.

Is it possible to queue BlackBerry goodybags?

Yes, just like normal goodybags you can queue BlackBerry add-ons in advance so they activate automatically once your old one runs out.

What about roaming data?

Like all their other services, roaming data with BlackBerry on Giffgaff is a bargain. Even though they get charged for the data, Giffgaff is giving everyone 10MB for free every day!

Does it work with the Hokey Cokey goodybag?

Yes, you can activate a BlackBerry add-on with any goodybag. Hokey Cokey might not be ready for launch but will definitely be coming soon.

What are the data charges?

On any of the goodybags costing £10 or more, all data is included in your goodybag rate. However, the £5 Hokey Cokey and unlimited texts goodybags don’t include any data. These will have internet access charged at the standard PAYG data rates of 20p/day for a maximum of 20MB but all BBM and push email data will be completely free.

So what are you waiting for? If you’re paying over the odds on another network for your BlackBerry phone, now could be the perfect time to switch and start saving cash! Please let us know how you get on with BlackBerry on Giffgaff and if you have any questions we haven’t answered, let us know in the comments.

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A couple of months ago we reported on the T-Mobile rip-off tactics of secretly removing Lycamobile numbers from its inclusive package of voice minutes. Following up on that article, we can now reveal that T-Mobile erroneously list UK-based 07 mobile numbers that were originally issued by LycaMobile as “international” in order to allow their billing systems to charge customers extra.

Like 3, Vodafone and Orange, LycaMobile issue phone numbers on the 074 range (specifically the 07404 prefix code) and T-Mobile automatically charges customers for calls to these numbers even if they have minutes remaining. While some customers have managed to get one-off refunds by complaining and threatening to call Ofcom or CISAS, it seems this is an official T-Mobile policy that is here to stay regardless of its dubious legality.

T-Mobile have thankfully advised the full range of numbers that are not included in their allowances and have confirmed that the additional charges are specified in their Terms and Conditions of service:

Unfortunately this doesn’t fix the ethical issue of it being utterly unpractical for the average user to check whether a phone number is on the blacklist before dialling. Indeed, we would have thought that it would be a completely reasonable assumption to assume that all UK mobile numbers are allowed for inclusive minutes. The regulators have made it clear that mobile tariffs have to be transparent and nobody could claim that T-Mobile’s advertising about this is at all transparent. In any case, Ofcom, clearly indicate that “numbers 071 to 075 and 077 to 079 are UK mobile numbers”.

A potential solution if you are a Lycamobile user would be to try to request a PAC from another SIM and port in a non-074 number and see whether this addresses the issue. You could even use this opportunity to get a new personalised Gold phone number.

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Giffgaff have finally launched their long-awaited data-only goodybag (they call it a “Gigabag”). Promised for months, the new goodybags are designed specially for data devices such as dongles, mobile Wifi hotsopts, iPads and other tablets. Previously, Giffgaff had given unlimited data for anyone on a goodybag costing at least £10 but customers were not permitted to use SIMs in anything other than a phone to access the internet. This meant that it was impossible for internet tablet users to get the fantastic Giffgaff value nor to use their Giffgaff SIMs for tethering. Thankfully, this situation has now been well and truly rectified 🙂

On 23 September, Giffgaff finally officially announced that the much-requested data-only goodybags were coming soon. They also announced the various plans available as well as all the details of the pricing. There are three goodybags being introduced in total:

£5.00 – 500MB data
£7.50 – 1GB data
£12.50 – 3GB data

All the goodybags last for one month and can be bought from your credit balance or with a debit or credit card. You can’t use it in combination with any other Giffgaff goodybag and if it runs out you must wait until the next month but they do give you 50MB free in case you run over your allowance. And overage is charged at just 2p/MB after that.

We’ve had a look around and have to admit that, like their PAYG services, the value offered by these data-only goodybags is pretty much as good as it’s possible to get. In fact, Giffgaff have even admitted that if you use every last drop of data in the goodybags, they’ll actually end up losing money on them. Not a bad deal, eh?

The launch of these new products is a breath of fresh air for anyone in the UK looking for a cheap and simple, no frills PAYG SIM for mobile data. The £12.50 goodybag offering 3GB of data is probably the best deal currently going for mobile broadband on a laptop, dongle or tablet device. If you want to take advantage of this great news, order a free Giffgaff SIM right now or if you want to use it in an iPad, get a free pre-cut micro-SIM instead. And don’t forget, their fantastic offer for £5 free credit is still running if you order it through us.

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