Mobile Network Comparison

Giffgaff has finally introduced data charging. And it’s for real this time.

Ever since they started, mobile data has been completely free for all users on Giffgaff (up to a rarely-enforced fair use limit of 100MB per day). According to their staff, this was merely because they hadn’t got round to setting up the charging hardware yet. As time went by, the deadline for the introduction of charging got postponed over and over again. Presumably because their limited permanent staff were too busy working on other features like the Hokey Cokey goodybag and Blackberry support.

Back in April there was an ill-fated attempt to finally flip the switch. Unfortunately something went completely wrong as it destroyed mobile internet speed for a huge number of users and they quickly scrabbled to make data free again to sort out the issue. Now, three months later on the auspiciously-chosen 4th of July, they finally introduced data charging once and for all.

What does this mean for you? Well, if you’re on a goodybag that costs £10 or more, it makes no difference at all. You have free data included. And not any old data, truly unlimited data. However, if you’re on a £5 goodybag or just plain PAYG, you will have to start paying for data. The good news is that this is capped at only 20p per day (up to a limit of 20MB). If you go over this limit you’ll be charged at an additional 20p/MB which can soon add up fast (so don’t go rinsing YouTube videos). Also, if you use less than 1MB, you’ll only be charged a fraction of your daily 20p. This is all much easier to understand so we made the handy graph below to spell it out to you. If you have any queries about how data charging will affect you on Giffgaff, please drop us a question in the comments below.