Giffgaff/Tesco/02 or perhaps even EE ( see post number 14)

bluebell321

Giffgaff 3G data speed appears low to me and have been told that GG is quite poor.
Are they right?
Would I see a big difference if I went to Tesco?
Or if i'm going to change then to pay the extra and go straight to O2?

Other networks have poor reception here.

Im_just_careful

Giffgaff are fairly good value for text and talk and o2 has good 2G (voice & text) coverage but the data experience does not compare well.

o2 don't have the best 3G/4G network (google some tests to see) and then giffgaff seem to effectively get a lower priority than o2 customers.

It may be that Tesco get a higher priority than giffgaff for data but I've not tried Tesco.

I found giffgaff usable but "3" better for data. With "3" calls are the problem.

chanz4

data is hit and miss with tesco

d123

I've been testing a Giffgaff sim the last few weeks, it has pleasantly surprised me in how much it's improved since the last time I used it around 6-7 months ago.

dieselglider

I've been experimenting with a Giffgaff sim for the past few days, looking both for 4G, and also the 2G coverage where my current 3 network loses connection.

About 6am, both 3G and 4G work very well, 3G giving about 9-10Mbps, and 4G about 11-13Mbps. Not long after 9am, the 3G drops drastically to about 0.2Mbps, and 4G to around 6-10Mbps, so 3G basically unusable.

I have read that Tesco data give similar speeds to O2, but other reviews slate it, so I'm not sure whether to try a monthly Tesco sim, or not.

EE would be my other preferred option, The Peoples Operator mvno offering good deals, but not 4G at this time.

bluebell321

Thank you. So if I understand the second post correctly, although I can make calls ok my poor data experience wouldn't be much different if I went directly to )2.
Back to the drawing board then.
What are people's experiences of EE?
I see I can get a 7 day SIM and test out coverage for calls and data. That might be worth a try.

d123

dieselglider wrote: »

p
About 6am, both 3G and 4G work very well, 3G giving about 9-10Mbps, and 4G about 11-13Mbps. Not long after 9am, the 3G drops drastically to about 0.2Mbps, and 4G to around 6-10Mbps, so 3G basically unusable.

That's a good point, I've been testing with a 4G phone, and it's always perfectly usable, I suppose the caveat is that Giffgaff is now good enough to use, but probably need a 4G handset to do so.

I'll switch 4G off for a few days and see what 3G is like around my region.

d123

bluebell321 wrote: »

p
What are people's experiences of EE?

EE is the Ferrari of networks in my use, my contract is on EE, and it's the phone I use everyday.

If I don't get 30Mbps download I would presume there must be a network fault as it's always quicker than that.

It's also the biggest 3G/4G network in the country.

Edit to add:

Here's a recent speedtest I ran on my EE phone:

MikeWhite

Until recently I'd given up on gg for data. I;ve tried this morning, out of interest, now that 4g is more widely rolled out. Not sure if Saturday is a valid day to test on?
Here are my results of 4g and 3g

bluebell321

Is it just me? I can't see those results.

MikeWhite

bluebell321 wrote: »

Is it just me? I can't see those results.

No, it was my fault. For some reason, images from Google Photos do not work.
Sorry!