It started out by pioneering several unique incentives for customers, mainly low PAYG rates (8p/min, 4p/text), free 0800 numbers and "Goodybags" aka bundles which are a monthly allocation of minutes, texts and data for a fixed fee.
Giffgaff introduced a Goodybag which was, at the time hard to beat - In fact, not many customers saw the need for it: It was unlimited data for £10 a month.
Over the years, giffgaff has prided itself on being "The Mobile Network Run by You", which is a tagline designed to encourage its customers (giffgaff like to refer to them as "members") to take part in decision-making processes that help giffgaff to grow.
One of the main incentives is to encourage members to distribute free SIM cards to friends, family and other potential customers, for which they receive 500 "payback" points, which equates to £5.
SIM cards given out in this way also have a free £5 credit credited to them upon activation and topping up with £10 of credit. (If you are interested in one, here is my shameless plug: Click HERE for your free SIM with £5 of FREE CREDIT).
Over the last five years, giffgaff has increased and altered the range of Goodybags available, including the introduction of 4G Goodybags last year.
3G Goodybags start at £5 a month, and you can see how giffgaff's bundles compare to the other networks on my website HERE.
Last Autumn, giffgaff upset many of their customers by increasing the price of the unlimited data Goodybags from £15 a month to £20 a month, though customers who bought the £15 Goodybag every month have been given several months' grace and have been able to continue purchasing this Goodybag at this price.
Data on giffgaff is a tetchy subject for some customers, however.
Many people complain that data speeds are incredibly slow (to the point of being unusable), and much of this has been attributed to giffgaff not being allowed/only being allowed to purchase a very limited quantity of data from O2.
Heavy data users have allegedly slurped this limited data, so giffgaff have introduced traffic shaping - sorry, throttling - to many customers from about 08:00-24:00.
That's all day, just in case you were wondering.
Unless you're on a night shift and sit there playing with your phone, giffgaff's data might not be much use to you.
In fact, I stopped using giffgaff last year due to this data problem: I was in the centre of Basingstoke when I realised that I had four bars of HSDPA, yet I couldn't even sync or send an email!
Maybe the price hike of the unlimited data Goodybag has been enough to discourage those giffgaff customers who actually could hammer their data, because using data on the giffgaff network is now much, much better.
I can now use data on HSDPA, and get download speeds of around 2MB per second and upload speeds of roughly 1MB per second - Hardly blazingly fast, but at least it now works!
Given that it is getting on for twelve months since the last Goodybag price increase, giffgaff have been reviewing the market and they conducted a customer survey to find out what people want/expect, and what they are willing to pay for.
After nearly two months, giffgaff have just announced the news; and whilst it's not all good, it isn't too bad either - except for the unlimited data customers...
So What's Changing on the 2nd of September?
Firstly, all Goodybags will be 4G - This helps to bring giffgaff in line with many of the other networks, and given that O2 have stopped upgrading masts to 3G, I am glad to see 4G provided at the same cost (or is it?).
The range of Goodybags available will be simplified and reduced, with the main casualties being a reduction in 3G data allocations, but effectively an increase from the 4G Goodybag data allowances.
The £12 Goodybag's data allocation drops from 3GB (3G) to 2GB (4G), which I think is pretty mean and is not competitive at all. The original £12 4G Goodybag only had 1GB of data included, but I still think that this is a bad deal.
The £15 Goodybag's data allocation drops from 5GB (3G) to 4GB (4G).
The biggest change is the way in which unlimited data is sold:
Previously, unlimited data was available last year for £15. This price increased to £20, and the data was subject to throttling.
From the 2nd of September,the £20 Goodybag will have 6GB of data, after which data is throttled to a mere 256 kilobits per second. This is, technically unlimited, but this is identical to the data throttling fiasco that ensued in the US last year.
Giffgaff is unique in that you can purchase a new (or different) Goodybag early, i.e. before the end of the 30 day period, which I'm guessing that some people will find useful - Or necessary.
Given that there are now exceedingly few UK networks offering unlimited data, this news is likely to see a fair amount of churn. I would say - and recommend - that customers who really do want unlimited data head to Three, as this can be had for a fair bit less, and includes 4G as standard.
I'm not convinced that giffgaff has made the right choice in these Goodybag allocations: You can get more for less, but there is a loyal customer base with giffgaff, and the free same network calls and texts are a real bonus (you only need to top up by £10 every three months to keep this active).
Giffgaff's biggest problem is their marketing - They are currently advertising on E4, and have said many times that their intended market/customer base is the student generation.
Unfortunately, this demographic wants lots of data, and generally aren't interested in paying for minutes and texts.
However, looking through the forums (aka "Community Pages") on giffgaff, it's clear that there are a lot of loyal, older customers who do value minutes in their monthly bundles, and I'm glad to see that these requirements have been catered for - Or maybe giffgaff couldn't afford to purchase additional data from O2, hence the newly announced Goodybags.
Full details about the changes can be found in the graphic below, and on the official giffgaff Announcements page here.
I will soon be updating my PAYG bundles website to include these changes.
