So I decided to order a free SIM from giffgaff. I mean why the heck not, they seem to have a better tarrif than Vodafone PAYG/Freebees. I'm still waiting for the SIM to arrive but I'm just wondering what giffgaff are like before I bother trying to get a PAC from Vodafone and switch my old number to giffgaff. Seeing as it runs on O2 my internet up here will be faster seeing as 3G on Vodafone can be patchy for me.

Best network you can find in my experience, only been on it for half a year but I love it. The payback is awesome too! You get paid for helping out in the forum and such. And yeah it runs on O2's signal so is pretty fast, and I had decent O2 signal so get the same now.

Yeah I do £10/mo for Vodafone Freebees and I only get 300 texts and 500MB web. With giffgaff I can get unlimited texts and web plus 250mins talk time for £10. I think I know which deal gets my vote here I'm also scared in case I go over my 500MB a lot (I like my market) because once you go over your free web on vodafone, they will eat your credit. Interesting story on an old PAYG Vodafone W200i. Ended up with -£2.00 credit. So I see it looks like it's worth the switch

By the way who actually runs giffgaff?

Yup as long as you are on the £10 or above goodybag then it's fully unlimited (But no tethering/portable hotspot). If you are not on £10 or above goodybag then the data is 20p for up to 20mb then it get's very pricey after that.

What's this about no tethering? Surely it doesn't make a difference :/

LOL I remember when I was with R$-156,00 of credit...
Do they send SIM Cards to Brazil?

UK only network. Would be interesting to see if roaming would work though.

I'd love to get one of these SIM's to throw in my Global US phone just for when I travel there. I plan to soon, so I'll keep GiffGaff in mind... That plan is cheaper than my monthly US unlimited plan, but I've got tethering too for $30 a month.

pizzaboy - PM me if you ever need a sim as if you order one of a member you get free credit, but you'll need a valid U.K address for it to be delivered to.

Also yes, no tethering as due to it being unlimited.. If ever user tethered it'd throttle the network due to the high speeds and desktop sites/downloads. Also remember it's a virtual network so can't handle as much load as O2 can.

Its a fantastic network, problems are sorted quickly. No horrible customer service numbers. And its CHEAP, I pay £10 and month and get 250 minutes, unlimited texts and unlimited internet. the internet is what I use the most =P.

Only gripe is O2 has a 3G network that is quite bad out of the centre of towns and cities.

O2's 3G network is not the only one that's bad out of the towns, they all are. All I can say with Giff Gaff is I'd move to them except for 1 issue - they don't do BlackBerry support yet. When they do, I'll probably move to them since they run on the O2 network which has always been great for me signal wise, even if it's only 2G in some areas.

I switched to O2 pay monthly when I got my HTC and 3G is fine outside of the towns for me...

Try going to Wales Only Three seemed to have a 3G signal out there and even that was rare.

They are working on it, you know they have to have their own dedicated servers and all :/ But the team said they are working on implementing that, and we should have full BIS support by Autumn this year. If not then it'll be here by the end of 2011 if they have no delays.

Yeah I read the same. I may consider moving at that time but until then I'll stick with O2.

So yeah, why do they disallow tethering?

They all disallow tethering. They can make more money from you charging for it. They also disallow it because a PC is capable of transferring much more data than a phone is, and it puts strain on the already way overloaded network.

I was able to tether on my Vodafone free web/freebees deal. Note: at no extra cost whatsoever.

Definitely cheap and great value for money, but the O2 network is pretty poor out-of-town. Strangely enough, T-Mobile's network seems to be one of the best around here, particularly if you roam onto Orange networks as well now. Shame they're crippling their data packages more and more these days.

T-Mobile are just too expensive compared to other networks.
I activated my giffgaff SIM about a week ago and I'm really happy with it