I'm reviewing the situation..

[lovingboth]

Shiny currently has a GiffGaff sim, but their free data deal ends on 1st December 28th February. Unlike all the other deadlines for finishing this offer - I first started writing this in October :) - it looks like this one won't be extended.

What to do then?

a) stick with them. £10 a month PAYG gets 100 mins, texts, plus unlimited net. But the data speed is not that great (L has Shiny-lite, i.e. a Wildfire, on Virgin, i.e. t-mobile's network, and gets faster connections)

b) go for 3's £5 a month data deal (no longer available). 3's £10 a month rolling deal gets 100 mins, 3,000 texts (both far more than I'd use) and 1G net. But it's 3 and their coverage is patchy. If I committed to 12 months (unlikely) I could have 300 mins.

c) go for Tesco's £10 a month. More minutes, but it's Tesco and their 'unlimited' lie is actually 500G.

d) go for T-Mobile £10.21 a month rolling. 100 mins, 100 texts, lots of internet (500M cap on streaming video, which I rarely do, uploading and downloading files, unlimited browsing / email)

e) Anyone else?

No good: Orange (£20.42 for their cheapest sim-only monthly with internet, then only 500M?! or £10 a month PAYG for just 100M). O2 even worse. Virgin £15.32, 30 day rolling contract, 500 minutes, 1G internet.

Comments

[vampwillow]

Thanks for doing this research; I might be looking to change shortly as my current (data) contract is about to expire and they (O2) seem to be being very silly. I occasionally use my phone for voice calls (yes, I know, very shocking!) and very few (<10) texts but I like to stay connected which this "minutes" thing doesn't seem to make sense of. Surely it is connected 24/7? anyway, I might actually churn for the *first* time ever - which would be since the mid-80s.

[lovingboth]

I have been happy for years with Virgin as my voice/text provider. I don't use either much, and it's typically to other Virgin phones (the rest of the family), so my average monthly bill is about a quid. If they were a tenner a month for something with data, I'd go for them.

It may well be connected 24/7, but when you use it to call or text someone on another network / landline, they have to hand over money, hence limiting your use by charging you, one way or another.

I think O2 are actively trying to discourage people joining them! Ah, the perils of selling too many iWhateveryousaySteves for their network capacity.

GiffGaff are O2 resellers. I've had free data off them for ages, still have £8 or so of my initial £10 credit left, but it looks like that party is over.

It's a pity Three have dropped their £5 data plus not cheap voice/text deal, or that would probably have been the one I'd have gone for, just using shiny for data and my Virgin phone for the rest.