Last week O2 MVNO giffgaff experienced the first major outage of 2016.
As usual, customers took to the online-only Help and Support section, but were fobbed off with the usual "It's not our fault, we can't do anything about it" excuses that were relayed from giffgaff themselves via the online community of customers.
I do use giffgaff, but never as my main network as the service is far too unreliable day to day - as well as experiencing more outages every year than any other network that I've used.
On average, giffgaff has around four outages nationally/regionally every year, which can't always be attributed to O2 or parent company Telefonica.
O2 manages to hold onto a much more acceptable network failure rate than giffgaff, which does make you wonder if "cheap and cheerful" is maybe not the best policy if you want a reliable mobile service.
I hope that giffgaff eventually manage to sort out these regular outages, as it would be a shame to see this network operator fail after five years. As Britain's third largest MVNO, giffgaff should have big enough balls to fix these problems quickly, if not prevent them from occurring as often.
The least that giffgaff should do is hold their hands up and tell customers that it is their fault for not investing in more robust systems, rather than hiding behind the online community of customers and saying that there isn't anything that they can do.
Sunday, 17 April 2016
As You Go Mobile Network Collapses?
Only a few months ago, a new O2 MVNO entered the UK market.
As You Go Mobile offered 6p/minute, 5p/text and 3p/MB PAYG rates (no monthly bundles) on the O2 network.
Proving that the MVNO market is a dynamic - and very tough - place, the company appears to have gone bust.
Around the 7th of April 2016, the As You Go Mobile website appeared to have been taken offline, with Google reporting issues with the website's security certificate.
I went to the company's Twitter account to see what was going on. They currently have four followers (including myself) and are following one other Twitter account, so it's safe to say that they aren't using this as their primary means of contact!
I tried to contact them, but they have not responded to either of my requests for information, so all I can do is assume that the company has sunk without trace.
The As You Go Mobile website is no longer visible, though there is a holding page that says asyougomobile.com is currently unavailable.
If As You Go Mobile has folded already, this wouldn't be a surprise, as MVNOs go under regularly, though this is the first time I've seen an active MVNO fold within such a short space of time.
It's a pity if As You Go Mobile has folded already, as they were offering some very good value, basic PAYG rates on the O2 network.
Given that O2 MVNO giffgaff has recently increased their standard PAYG rates to a rather outlandish 15p/minute, As You Go Mobile were really good value for low users, and certainly much better value than the other new O2 MVNO GT Mobile, whose national rates are bizarrely poor value (19p/text, 19p/minute to a mobile!?)
My own best value PAYG bundles website has been updated today to reflect the possibility that As You Go Mobile has ceased trading.
If As You Go Mobile respond to me, I'll update my website and this blog accordingly.
As You Go Mobile offered 6p/minute, 5p/text and 3p/MB PAYG rates (no monthly bundles) on the O2 network.
Proving that the MVNO market is a dynamic - and very tough - place, the company appears to have gone bust.
Around the 7th of April 2016, the As You Go Mobile website appeared to have been taken offline, with Google reporting issues with the website's security certificate.
I went to the company's Twitter account to see what was going on. They currently have four followers (including myself) and are following one other Twitter account, so it's safe to say that they aren't using this as their primary means of contact!
I tried to contact them, but they have not responded to either of my requests for information, so all I can do is assume that the company has sunk without trace.
The As You Go Mobile website is no longer visible, though there is a holding page that says asyougomobile.com is currently unavailable.
If As You Go Mobile has folded already, this wouldn't be a surprise, as MVNOs go under regularly, though this is the first time I've seen an active MVNO fold within such a short space of time.
It's a pity if As You Go Mobile has folded already, as they were offering some very good value, basic PAYG rates on the O2 network.
Given that O2 MVNO giffgaff has recently increased their standard PAYG rates to a rather outlandish 15p/minute, As You Go Mobile were really good value for low users, and certainly much better value than the other new O2 MVNO GT Mobile, whose national rates are bizarrely poor value (19p/text, 19p/minute to a mobile!?)
My own best value PAYG bundles website has been updated today to reflect the possibility that As You Go Mobile has ceased trading.
If As You Go Mobile respond to me, I'll update my website and this blog accordingly.
What is Handset Fatigue?
The latest buzzword to be passed around by mobile phone retailers and resellers is "handset fatigue".
What is handset fatigue? To start with, it's not badly designed smartphones bending or cracked LG G3s.
The term refers to customers simply having too much choice in the mobile marketplace.
Global smartphone sales are slowing, especially in the EMEA regions, and much of this is down to smartphone saturation - where most people who want a smartphone now have one.
Smartphones have also come on in leaps and bounds, and a capable smartphone can be bought for around £100 these days. Many potential customers simply don't need to buy the latest smartphone, especially if the one that they already use is perfectly ok to use.
I'm not a fan of upgrading for the sake of it, unless I have effectively reached the end of my current phone contract, in which case I'd expect a downgrade to a SIM only contract, or a shiny new smartphone on another 24 month contract.
Certainly, the recently released Samsung Galaxy S7 is a good example of this: The Galaxy S6 that many customers own is still barely a year old. These customers are probably on a two year contract, and does the S7 really offer that many new features to require customers to upgrade? Probably not.
Customers have grown wise to SIM only contracts, and many will use these whilst their current smartphone is still working. Porting your number in/out of a network operator is much easier these days, and given that monthly tariffs for the latest flagship phones is now around the £50 a month mark, it's hardly surprising that people are sticking with what they've got until the contract term ends and they can get a much cheaper SIM only contract.
The other reason that handset fatigue is kicking in is down to the sheer number of new high end phones that are released every year.
Each manufacturer is pushing out ever more phones in the £200+ region, and many of these are now so similar it's understandable that customers can't see the reason to upgrade.
- High end phones are the "feature phones" of today, and marginal improvements between them isn't enough to warrant ditching last years' model for one that has a fingerprint scanner, for example.
Even last years' upcoming manufacturer Huawei is touting their latest handset, the P9, but with a £449 price tag, this is a pretty expensive phone from a manufacturer who is known for decent budget phones. Why would anyone choose this over a Samsung Galaxy S6?
Handsets are all very similar, and to be honest are pretty uninteresting these days. A year ago one of my favourite mobile phone websites Mobile Gazette closed down due to new smartphones being black, slabby phones with no outstanding features. Five or ten years ago, Mobile Gazette was filled with weekly handset releases which made you actually look forward to getting a new phone - as well as wanting a different one only a few months later, as they all had something that set them apart from other phones.
Handset fatigue = Lack of choice in a world of all very similar smartphones.
What is handset fatigue? To start with, it's not badly designed smartphones bending or cracked LG G3s.
The term refers to customers simply having too much choice in the mobile marketplace.
Global smartphone sales are slowing, especially in the EMEA regions, and much of this is down to smartphone saturation - where most people who want a smartphone now have one.
Smartphones have also come on in leaps and bounds, and a capable smartphone can be bought for around £100 these days. Many potential customers simply don't need to buy the latest smartphone, especially if the one that they already use is perfectly ok to use.
I'm not a fan of upgrading for the sake of it, unless I have effectively reached the end of my current phone contract, in which case I'd expect a downgrade to a SIM only contract, or a shiny new smartphone on another 24 month contract.
Certainly, the recently released Samsung Galaxy S7 is a good example of this: The Galaxy S6 that many customers own is still barely a year old. These customers are probably on a two year contract, and does the S7 really offer that many new features to require customers to upgrade? Probably not.
Customers have grown wise to SIM only contracts, and many will use these whilst their current smartphone is still working. Porting your number in/out of a network operator is much easier these days, and given that monthly tariffs for the latest flagship phones is now around the £50 a month mark, it's hardly surprising that people are sticking with what they've got until the contract term ends and they can get a much cheaper SIM only contract.
The other reason that handset fatigue is kicking in is down to the sheer number of new high end phones that are released every year.
Each manufacturer is pushing out ever more phones in the £200+ region, and many of these are now so similar it's understandable that customers can't see the reason to upgrade.
- High end phones are the "feature phones" of today, and marginal improvements between them isn't enough to warrant ditching last years' model for one that has a fingerprint scanner, for example.
Even last years' upcoming manufacturer Huawei is touting their latest handset, the P9, but with a £449 price tag, this is a pretty expensive phone from a manufacturer who is known for decent budget phones. Why would anyone choose this over a Samsung Galaxy S6?
Handsets are all very similar, and to be honest are pretty uninteresting these days. A year ago one of my favourite mobile phone websites Mobile Gazette closed down due to new smartphones being black, slabby phones with no outstanding features. Five or ten years ago, Mobile Gazette was filled with weekly handset releases which made you actually look forward to getting a new phone - as well as wanting a different one only a few months later, as they all had something that set them apart from other phones.
Handset fatigue = Lack of choice in a world of all very similar smartphones.
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