The lovely folks at GiffGaff asked me to test out their speedy 4G service on a shiny Sony Xperia Z3 phone – for those of you who don’t know what 4G is there’s a handy guide here.
Firstly, a little introduction to GiffGaff – they are mobile network, powered by O2 – that offer flexible pricing and plans, no strings or hassle, just clear simple pricing. Their 4G plans are fairly priced –
£12 per month will get you
- 500 UK minutes
- Unlimited UK texts
- 1 GB Internet
£15 per month will get you
- 500 UK minutes
- Unlimited UK texts
- 3 GB Internet
£18 per month will get you
- 500 UK minutes
- Unlimited UK texts
- 5 GB Internet
All the packages give you Free and Unlimited GiffGaff to GiffGaff calls too! If you’re interested in trying them for yourself if you use this link – you’ll get £5 credit added to your account when you top up £10!
So I kept a little diary about how I used GiffGaff and the 4G service they offer over a period of a week. It’s worth noting that 4G coverage isn’t available EVERYWHERE yet, and where I live in deepest darkest Essex I don’t have it! But once out and about I did.
Saturday 30th May
James and I were off to LEGOLAND Windsor for the opening of Heartlake City!
I took a LOT of photos, and video, and found my nippy connection great for uploading them across the social networks. I was able to upload a video of James conquering the Learner Drivers to YouTube to share with family in super quick time, 4G is fast uploading data as well as downloading it too! It’s great for sharing content on the go!
Sunday 31st May
Sunday was a bit of a lazy day with a fair bit of driving, as normal when I’m in the car I listen to a lot of Google Play Music, so I put the GiffGaff network to the test with streaming music. Considering I was charging around the back and beyond of Essex, it worked brilliantly well with no stuttering or stopping!
Monday 1st June
Again another day with a lot of driving, so I decided to catch up with Richard Herring’s ‘Warming Up’ Podcast on Soundcloud. Soundcloud doesn’t seem to prefetch tracks like Google Play Music does, so when the signal drops, so does what you’re listening to. I only had a few drops which, with two hours driving, is not bad at all!
Tuesday 2nd June
Working out and about today, I was really struggling using WiFi, emails needed to be sent, and files downloaded. I remembered that tethering IS allowed on GiffGaff (but not on the Unlimited Plans). So I switched on WiFi Tethering and I got my emails and files sorted in no time, it FELT like a home connection, which is proof alone of how speedy 4G can be.
Wednesday 3rd June – Thursday 4th June
I didn’t really do much on Wednesday and Thursday! Mostly working from home as I was taking Friday off to go to London! I had no 4G signal so I decided to test out phone calls on GiffGaff, as you’d expect on O2, the calls were fine, no drops – Perfect!
Friday 5th June
This was the day that I knew I’d be stretching the 4G on GiffGaff to its very limits, I was off to London with Miss A to see Take That at the O2! We were making a full day and night of it. I knew I’d be using my phone and data a LOT – lots of photos finding their way across social networks, and the odd video uploaded too it would test 4G well!
London has excellent 4G coverage across all the networks, GiffGaff included, and all the pictures and video I took uploaded swiftly, and first time too – Even in the densely crowded O2!
So that ends my week with 4G on GiffGaff – it’s been very good! It’s probably one of the cheapest ways to get 4G on Pay as you Go in the UK at the moment. Whilst 4G is only in its infancy here, you’ll find the coverage of it grows and grows with the demand.
