Who is the best UK PAYG 3G data provider?

[Guest Woshmistro]

Hi! It's likely that I wouldn't want to stay with Orange for their service. I'd like to know who will give the most data for the lowest topup, or the fairest provider (allowing tethering, etc). I've been looking at the popular mobile sites (Vodafone, O2, Three, T-Mobile) but I can't work out or navigate to get the real details, so anyone with experience of using their service could give a recommendation?

My choice:

I've gone for GiffGaff at the moment.

Thanks to all those who have helped! :)

Edited January 8, 2011 by Woshmistro

[Guest Swimmerboy]

Hi! It's likely that I wouldn't want to stay with Orange for their service. I'd like to know who will give the most data for the lowest topup, or the fairest provider (allowing tethering, etc). I've been looking at the popular mobile sites (Vodafone, O2, Three, T-Mobile) but I can't work out or navigate to get the real details, so anyone with experience of using their service could give a recommendation?

I'd recommend GiffGaff. For £15 per month you'll get:

* 300 minutes

* Unlimited texts

* Unlimited Internet

And unlimited really does mean unlimited!

Edited December 21, 2010 by Swimmerboy

[Guest Swimmerboy]

...or for £10 per month:

* 250 minutes

* Unlimited texts

* Unlimited Internet

[Guest rjm2k]

Don't know if it's the best but I'm happy with T-mobile at the moment

£10 per month gives me

unlimited internet

unlimited texts

£10 of calls

Whether or not that offer is still on I don't know

I also looked at Tesco which from memory at the time would have given me

unlimited internet

unlimited texts

300 mins of calls

[Guest jamidodger1]

rjm2k thats pay monthly, Giffgaff is PAYG

[Guest Swimmerboy]

Don't know if it's the best but I'm happy with T-mobile at the moment

£10 per month gives me

unlimited internet

unlimited texts

£10 of calls

Whether or not that offer is still on I don't know

I also looked at Tesco which from memory at the time would have given me

unlimited internet

unlimited texts

300 mins of calls

Was on Three who did:

90 minutes of calls

'Unlimited' (3,500) texts

'Unlimited' (2GB) of data

all for £15 cause I've been with them for years.

It came to renew my contract this month and I decided I'd be better off going for the £10 deal with GiffGaff and being able to quit or take up a new contract at any time than be tied in to three for another 18 months at a steeper tariff.

[Guest majnu]

probably t-mobile they restrict you to 3gig a month but honestly that is more than enough. If you look at some of the sim only deals that have been posted at hotukdeals you can see some great bargains.

[Guest Woshmistro]

GiffGaff sounding good so far, I like companies who really mean unlimited, makes me happy theres good in the world.

I've never used mobile internet before so I don't know how much I would use, and the first few days when I get to use my SF I'll be on it all the time watching my movements on Google Maps and constantly being signed in to Facebook and Twitter and all that stuff till I settle down.

Edited December 21, 2010 by Woshmistro

[Guest fiendishlyclever]

GiffGaff sounding good so far, I like companies who really mean unlimited, makes me happy theres good in the world.

I've never used mobile internet before so I don't know how much I would use, and the first few days when I get to use my SF I'll be on it all the time watching my movements on Google Maps and constantly being signed in to Facebook and Twitter and all that stuff till I settle down.

In the last 10 days I've had mine I've used over 700Mb - although my usage dropped when I got the Blade Wifi fix from the marketplace!

[Guest goldengate]

I'm on O2 Text & Web £10 per month (-£7.50 is deducted for O2 Family bolt on).

So for a tenner I get:

• 500MB Data (never run out yet)
  
• 300 Texts to Anyone
  
• Unlimited Calls to O2 (and they can call me free)
  
• Unlimited Texts to O2 (and they can text me free)
  
• free surprise reward code every topup
  
• £2.50 credit left
  
• plus 10% topups back every 3 months
  

GiffGaff also looks good but I save a huge fortune on free O2 calls to my girlfriend which is more than the 300 minutes per month GiffGaff have. You have to work out the total costs for all services and not just Data. Having said that I've just sent off for a O2 3G simcard because my current old O2 sim is 2G and loading sites is s.l.o.w. :)

[Guest Raspa]

If you are more interested in speed then 3, if you don't mind it being slower and less 3G coverage then giffgaff.

[Guest Woshmistro]

I've ordered a GiffGaff sim to try just so I'm reassured by the the unlimited data and see what my real usage can be (also free £5 topup). I checked the coverage for my area and it seemed OK, if I can take slow speeds then cool, if not then I'll try Three which I was considering before.

[Guest Azurren]

If you just want data and pay&go for calls/texts then t-mobile offer 6months of data (3gb/pm) for a one off £20 payment :)

Edited December 21, 2010 by Azurren

[Guest rjm2k]

rjm2k thats pay monthly, Giffgaff is PAYG

No it's PAYG, just have to top up £10 per month to qualify for the deal but I don't have to top up I can let my accumulated credit take over for a while

[Guest clivec]

I'm not sure who does the best deals, but for what its worth, I do know from personal experience that 3 UK offer the fastest "real world" speed, and orange the worst. O2 compress their images too much and they look awful, and t-mobile are fairly quick. (not really too sure about vodafone)

Not a scientific approach, nor from "googled" figures, but taken from my experience, and fyi I have a reasonable 3g signal from all of them in my area.

For me, and tis is the reason I am with them now, 3 uk are streets ahead when it comes to providing a blanket 3G signal with good quality/speed. After all, whats the point in having a super duper featured, mega fast, billion Mhz phone when you have to wait about for pages to load via gprs?

Just summat worth thinking about :)

Edited December 21, 2010 by clivec

[Guest cobhc]

I would love to go on three, but unfortunately the signal in my house is terrible even for just accepting calls, so it's a no go for me, even though I'm sure the 3G speeds would be amazing.

[Guest tdodd]

I've been with giffgaff since May and have yet to burn through my first £10 of credit. Up until 28th Feb they are including free internet just so long as you have some credit. There is no need to top up monthly. After 28th Feb it will take a £10 top up each month in order to retain the unlimited internet service. That is unless they extend the "free internet" offer again, which they've done a few times now.

The downside with giffgaff - as I understand it their 3G network is not that extensive. Certainly I struggle to get a decent 3G signal where I live and have the phone set to only use 2G so that it doesn't waste its energy hunting down and clinging onto a weak 3G signal. For my needs that does not seem to be a problem. Out and about I find 2G speeds perfectly adequate for what I want to do. YMMV.

Edited December 21, 2010 by tdodd

[Guest Prendy]

Damn, I just ordered a sim and saw your sig, anyway for them to cancel the order I just made and then order one with £5 free credit?

[Guest lordofangels]

Damn, I just ordered a sim and saw your sig, anyway for them to cancel the order I just made and then order one with £5 free credit?

No, once ordered can't be changed, just bin the first and order another by referal.

If the one you ordered is direct off the giffgaff website, then you can Activate it with just £5.

Same as getting one on referal really.

[Guest Prendy]

Yeah I suppose its only £5, I'll just leave it.

[Guest lordofangels]

Yeah I suppose its only £5, I'll just leave it.

But like I said order one off a referal and just bin the first one, if you want the free £5 that is.

[Guest tdodd]

But like I said order one off a referal and just bin the first one, if you want the free £5 that is.

Ah, but unless he/she waits a few days, with the weather and postal system as it is the SIMs could arrive on the same day, or in reverse order, so which one to choose?

[Guest Woshmistro]

So...just to make it clear, on GiffGaff, Internet is free and unlimited without buying a goodybag until the 28 of Feb 2011, right? Of course I should topup to pay for calls and texts. Then after Feb I will need to get a goodybag that includes internet, would that be done by just toping up the value you want or you topup then use the credit to buy the goodybag?

Edited December 21, 2010 by Woshmistro

[Guest rbbrslmn]

So...just to make it clear, on GiffGaff, Internet is free and unlimited without buying a goodybag until the 28 of Feb 2011, right? Of course I should topup to pay for calls and texts. Then after Feb I will need to get a goodybag that includes internet, would that be done by just toping up the value you want or you topup then use the credit to buy the goodybag?

I'm happy with giffgaff and in terms of pricing they are clearly the best 3G company....

not sure about coverage though, its fine for me in liverpool but they use 02, at my friends in the sticks its not so good.

its probably best to put your postcode in there before activating:

http://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Join-Cons...-map/td-p/40258

if it shows the places you most frequent as having 3g+ connections of course then you should go for it.

Edited December 21, 2010 by rbbrslmn

[Guest tdodd]

So...just to make it clear, on GiffGaff, Internet is free and unlimited without buying a goodybag until the 28 of Feb 2011, right? Of course I should topup to pay for calls and texts. Then after Feb I will need to get a goodybag that includes internet, would that be done by just toping up the value you want or you topup then use the credit to buy the goodybag?

You're correct up until 28th Feb, although I have read (not sure whether it's correct) that the "free" internet on offer at the moment is actually limited to 100MB per day, which ends up at 3GB per month, so still pretty generous for "free".

After 28th Feb you will need a Goodybag each month of £10 or more in order to benefit from the fully unlimited internet. Goodybags are different from regular credit. You can buy both and have both in effect at once. You can use existing credit to buy a Goodybag or you can buy a Goodybag outright.

For example, let's say on 1st March you top up with £20 credit. You can buy a £10 Goodybag with some of that credit. That will get you 100 minutes for that month, plus unlimited texts and internet. If you were to make 104 minutes of calls then once your Goodybag allowance of minutes had run out you would start to use minutes from your ordinary credit at 8p per minute. On 1st April you would need a bit more credit in order to buy your next Goodybag and the rest would remain in reserve as ordinary credit.

Remember, so long as you top up at least once every three months you will find that calls and texts between giffgaff members are free. Also, with enough referrals each month (two would do) you may never need to buy any more credit in the future. Just buy Goodybags from your referral credit.

EDIT : A correction brought to my attention - you will need to top up occasionally (not sure exactly how often) in order for your referral credits to remain valid. I think that topping up every three months should secure your referral credits as well as the additional benefits of free calls/texts between members.

Edited December 21, 2010 by tdodd