Shocking news!
Further to my announcement that giffgaff is effectively removing the availability of their unlimited data Goodybag, I see that Three are now going to increase the cost of unlimited data on their very popular PAYG plan from £15 to a whopping £20 a month!
Beware - this change is happening from the 19th of August.
This news has rocked my world somewhat, as unlimited data is not only becoming as rare as rocking horse poo, but it's also becoming very expensive.
For many people wanting unlimited data, Three is a great network, and their 321 PAYG plan is brilliant.
In my blog post just now I recommended that people head to Three for unlimited data, but this is looking more like a contract option, if you want to save some money.
Three's £15 PAYG bundle was not great for minutes (300 minutes for £15 is not good), but the fact that it included unlimited data was a massive selling point.
I don't think that £20 a month makes this such a great deal.
Once again, I will be updating my PAYG mobile bundle website again shortly!
Full details HERE.
Tuesday, 4 August 2015
giffgaff: Important Changes to Monthly Bundles
O2 MVNO giffgaff is the UK's third largest MVNO.
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.
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.
Monday, 3 August 2015
Nokia Sells Off Yet More Assets: HERE Maps Heads to Germany
It has just been announced that Nokia is selling its HERE Maps part of its business to a German car consortium (including Audi, BMW and others) for $3 billion – Quite a price for what is still one of the better electronic mapping businesses.
No doubt, HERE Maps will find its way into many a German car’s satnav system soon.
HERE Maps has long been a favourite of mine, even several years ago when using Nokia Symbian smartphones, Ovi (HERE) Maps was fast, accurate and easy to use.
Google Maps has since become the market leader, and has overshadowed the satnav industry for several years now, particularly as phones’ screens grew ever more in size.
Google’s mapping applications have become very useful, with a huge amount of location data stored on them, they can often surpass satnav systems as they hold local business information which integrates seamlessly with the web, Google searches, Google Mail and a host of other connected applications.
HERE Maps has always been a slightly disconnected system, with it’s own website that sort of connects with Nokia and Microsoft Lumia accounts on Windows Phone.
Nevertheless, Nokia’s maps have been accurate and simple to use (if lacking a bit of functionality) – The best reason to use them has always been that they have been free to use and you can download entire countries to your mobile to use completely offline. Google Maps does have this option, and it is getting easier to use, but it still throws too many tantrums in real world use to be considered comparable to HERE Maps.
Nokia is a smaller and quite dissimilar company to what it was only 5-10 years ago. With the sale of one of their better (and remaining) products, Nokia’s bones are beginning to look like they’ve been picked quite clean now.
There is still a glimmer of hope that come next Winter Nokia might just re-enter the phone business, but this is nowhere near certain, plus they will still have a lot of red tape to cut through – as well as find a decent manufacturer and rebuild their reputation.
The main question here is also what OS would Nokia choose? Sensible predictions would be either Android or a proprietary OS that would have to be something very special indeed.
There are still Nokia fans out there, myself included, but Nokia is looking like they are concentrating on producing a few niche tech products such as the OZO 360 camera.
If they keep selling/losing the good bits of the business, the next household product that bears the Nokia name could once again be a pair of wellington boots.
Sunday, 2 August 2015
Linx 7 Windows 8.1 Tablet: First Impressions
Recently I purchased a new tablet to replace my old Samsung Galaxy Tab 2, which was suffering from Android fragmentation (Outlook wouldn't install/update on Android 4.1).
I fancied a Windows tablet due to the upcoming Windows 10 free upgrade and quite honestly the Samsung tablet used to take about 20 minutes to boot up into a useable state.
The Linx tablet is swift and boots up/resumes very quickly, but I'm having to spend time updating the software on it.
My biggest issue is the learning curve required for Windows 8.1 - What a nightmare system! I'm still trying to figure out what swiping up, down, left and right is actually supposed to do!
Add to this the Metro interface and somehow I can also switch to a desktop, and it's very confusing compared even to the various Android tablets around.
- I thought that it would be more like Windows Phone.
Oh well, live and learn.
However, I've no idea when this tablet is going to get upgraded to Windows 10, so just as I'm getting used to it, I'll be faced with yet another learning curve.
So far, I really don't regret my purchase, and I'll blog some reviews and comments as I'm using this tablet.
I fancied a Windows tablet due to the upcoming Windows 10 free upgrade and quite honestly the Samsung tablet used to take about 20 minutes to boot up into a useable state.
The Linx tablet is swift and boots up/resumes very quickly, but I'm having to spend time updating the software on it.
My biggest issue is the learning curve required for Windows 8.1 - What a nightmare system! I'm still trying to figure out what swiping up, down, left and right is actually supposed to do!
Add to this the Metro interface and somehow I can also switch to a desktop, and it's very confusing compared even to the various Android tablets around.
- I thought that it would be more like Windows Phone.
Oh well, live and learn.
However, I've no idea when this tablet is going to get upgraded to Windows 10, so just as I'm getting used to it, I'll be faced with yet another learning curve.
So far, I really don't regret my purchase, and I'll blog some reviews and comments as I'm using this tablet.
Saturday, 1 August 2015
Windows 10. FFS.
Over 14 million people have updated their Windows 7 and 8 operating systems to Windows 10.
The internet hasn't gone into meltdown over glitches and problems, so I thought that Microsoft might have actually got the whole rollout process right.
They didn't.
I have now had two bad experiences with Windows 10, and am beginning to think that Microsoft only wants a limited number (the Chosen Few?) to upgrade to Windows 10.
My first disaster was my Acer netbook that is running Windows 7 Starter.
This stupidly slow netbook is virtually unusable, but it's a handy size and I had high hopes for Windows 10 actually making this thing useable.
After several updates and much tinkering, I discovered that I can't update it: It's running the Enterprise Edition of Windows 7 Starter, which is not eligible for an upgrade to Windows 10!
I vaguely remember buying this netbook in 2012, and have a feeling that I paid about £20 less than other similar netbooks. Now I know why.
More to the point, this is a genuine version of Windows, so how come retailers/sellers are flogging Enterprise Editions of Windows?
So, the first device I've attempted to upgrade will never be upgraded. FFS.
Moving on to a laptop that I had repaired a couple of years ago, I was pleased to find that it is running Windows 7 and after doing the preliminary checks, it looks like I can upgrade this to Windows 10!
All good, then?
Not quite.
After downloading the Windows 10 installer, I was greeted with the totally unhelpful and annoying dialogue box that simply says "Something happened".
The option of closing it then has to be followed up with a search on the internet for some clue as to what to do next.
Currently, I'm changing my location to USA, which for some ridiculous reason is supposed to work.
Microsoft, there are over 14 million happy Windows 10 upgraders out there. I'm not one of them.
I don't find your Something Happened message to be helpful or welcome, so Microsoft I have a message for you:
Mobile PAYG Deals Website - One Month On
I had some great news last night, my PAYG mobile deals website - http://mobile-networks-uk.weebly.com/ - has been running for only one month and has attracted over 969 page views.
For a simple website that is still to attract traffic via Google/Yahoo/Bing searches, I'm very happy with this number!
This blog has 361 page views in the same period, which is nice.
My Twitter account is slowly gaining followers.
This blog and Twitter do require quite a bit of work to keep going, so to have what is quite a static website that is attracting customers is brilliant news - I will always ensure that this website is kept fully updated with only the very best deals available - as well as warning customers if a network is about to change or alter their rates.
I am glad that my website is gaining momentum without any real influence from myself: I post in the giffgaff "community", and this has directed a few customers to my site, but for the most it has been a passive affair.
Also, now that I am successfully using IFTTT.com to post to my Facebook page, things should hopefully pick up speed.
For a simple website that is still to attract traffic via Google/Yahoo/Bing searches, I'm very happy with this number!
This blog has 361 page views in the same period, which is nice.
My Twitter account is slowly gaining followers.
This blog and Twitter do require quite a bit of work to keep going, so to have what is quite a static website that is attracting customers is brilliant news - I will always ensure that this website is kept fully updated with only the very best deals available - as well as warning customers if a network is about to change or alter their rates.
I am glad that my website is gaining momentum without any real influence from myself: I post in the giffgaff "community", and this has directed a few customers to my site, but for the most it has been a passive affair.
Also, now that I am successfully using IFTTT.com to post to my Facebook page, things should hopefully pick up speed.
Firefox Mobile Phones - My Thoughts for 2015
Normally, I'd avoid pitching different smartphone operating systems against each other, and this is not a review or comparison between them all.
However, with the recent closure of Geeksphone's mobile handset business, I thought that I'd revisit my hankering for something different.
Geeksphone had been making a phone running the Firefox OS, and when the first Firefox phones entered the UK market via eBay, I was intrigued.
The first Firefox mobiles were cheap and cheerful. If they had actually worked, then they might even have helped to sink Nokia/Microsoft's emerging Windows Mobile OS.
But, this new OS still has a long way to go, and you won't be picking one as your main handset unless you really want to be vastly different and leave yourself open to all sorts of potential usability issues.
Don't get me wrong, I'd love to try one out as a bit of a change, but for me I'm not sold.
I do wish that there was more choice in handset operating systems. I'm currently quite happy with Window Phone, having had years of being cemented in to the Google ecosystem and grown sick of the need for constant updates and upgrades.
iOS is not for me - mainly due to the stupidly high price of their products.
BlackBerry is ok, but once again their handsets are out of the "try it to see if you like it" price bracket.
Samsung's Tizen OS? What's that good for? And aren't most people sick of Samsung's Touchwiz tainting of Android, not to mention their bloatware?
There really isn't much choice: It's Android, iOS, Windows Phone or BlackBerry - and none of them are perfect.
I'm sure that there is a bit of a future in Firefox as a mobile phone OS, but it's far from clear how, when and why this might happen. Symbian has almost as much chance of making a comeback as Firefox does of becoming a major player at the moment.
Geeksphone's Firefox mobile phone - Another collectible handset for the Museum of Mobile History
However, with the recent closure of Geeksphone's mobile handset business, I thought that I'd revisit my hankering for something different.
Geeksphone had been making a phone running the Firefox OS, and when the first Firefox phones entered the UK market via eBay, I was intrigued.
The first Firefox mobiles were cheap and cheerful. If they had actually worked, then they might even have helped to sink Nokia/Microsoft's emerging Windows Mobile OS.
But, this new OS still has a long way to go, and you won't be picking one as your main handset unless you really want to be vastly different and leave yourself open to all sorts of potential usability issues.
Don't get me wrong, I'd love to try one out as a bit of a change, but for me I'm not sold.
I do wish that there was more choice in handset operating systems. I'm currently quite happy with Window Phone, having had years of being cemented in to the Google ecosystem and grown sick of the need for constant updates and upgrades.
iOS is not for me - mainly due to the stupidly high price of their products.
BlackBerry is ok, but once again their handsets are out of the "try it to see if you like it" price bracket.
Samsung's Tizen OS? What's that good for? And aren't most people sick of Samsung's Touchwiz tainting of Android, not to mention their bloatware?
There really isn't much choice: It's Android, iOS, Windows Phone or BlackBerry - and none of them are perfect.
I'm sure that there is a bit of a future in Firefox as a mobile phone OS, but it's far from clear how, when and why this might happen. Symbian has almost as much chance of making a comeback as Firefox does of becoming a major player at the moment.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)