bymark_a_e
on 13-09-201211:20 - last edited on 09-11-201211:02 by anthony_c
Hi all,
Well, since this is my first ever blog post, I might do well to start with a bit of an introduction. My name’s Mark and I joined giffgaff in July as the new Product Manager. As the job title suggests, my role is to manage the products and services which giffgaff sells from goodybags to nanoSIMs. On this occasion, we’re talking about the latter.
Just like all of you, we at giffgaff have been waiting with bated breath for Apples’ iPhone launch, hoping to hear about any new features and changes from the iPhone 4s. We’re excited to see that Apple has released the new model as a SIM free proposition as well as on contract.
One of the changes to the new iPhone is the introduction of an even smaller SIM card, the nanoSIM. We’ve been expecting this for a few weeks now and have been able to take steps towards supporting the nanoSIM, but since we do not have a direct relationship with Apple, we have been acting on assumptions and rumours like everyone else until yesterday.
We will be supporting the iPhone 5 as soon as we can, but before we go ahead and offer the nanoSIM, there are a number of technical changes that need to be made. To be able to get the giffgaff nanoSIM launched as soon as we can, we are looking at alternative distribution methods (a bit like we have done in the past with Microgaff). If all goes well, we hope to have the SIM cards ready for distribution in the coming months
To help everyone to stay up to date with our launch plans, we will be introducing a new ‘register your interest’ community page to giffgaff.com. So if you sign up we will send you an email as soon as we launch the nanoSIM so that you can be one of the first to get your hands on one. This will be coming soon.
That’s it for now. We’ll be sure to keep you all up to date as our launch plans start to formalise, but until then, thank-you for your patience and please be assured that will be supporting the nanoSIM as soon as possible.
Thank-you to everyone for your comments. First of all, please know that we are hearing your feedback and doing all that we can to deliver the nano SIMs as soon as possible.
I wanted to share some additional information with you to provide some context as to why we are not offering nano SIMs from the launch day of the iPhone 5.
In order to deliver the nano SIMs, technical work needs to be carried out which will enable us to provision nano SIMs with giffgaff settings. Every few weeks, we have a technical release and we need to make priority calls on what needs to be included.
As a small, lean company, we need to get maximum benefit from these technical releases and since we couldn't be sure that there would be a SIM free iPhone5 market with nano SIM at the time that we finalised the requirements for the last technical release, we took a decision to prioritise other important technical initiatives whilst also getting as prepared as possible for the potential nano SIM launch following the iPhone5 announcement.
Now, following the announcement and having heard your feedback, we are working flat out to get the nano SIMs prioritised and launched as soon as possible.
I hope this update provides some more information on the reasons why we are not offering nano SIM from the iPhone 5 launch date, but also some reassurance that we're doing all we can to get them delivered asap.
Hello everyone - thanks again for all of your comments. I can see there have been a number of requests for more definitive time scales for delivery of the nano SIM. I just wanted to say that I will be providing an update early next week on this. In the meantime, thank-you for your patience.
First of all I just want to thank everyone for their comments and feedback so far. I realise that we promised an update early this week but unfortunately we are still having internal conversations but I'll be in a position to update you all tomorrow.
There have been a number of requests for more information on when we will be able to offer nano SIMs on
giffgaff and we committed to providing an update today.
We would like to start this post with an apology to anyone who was hoping to order a nano SIM from us in time
for the iPhone5 launch.
The decisions we made as a company, were based within the context of a small but growing company with limited resources. Without access to all of the information we have today, a company decision was made to focus
giffgaff resources on other very important areas which would allow us to continue operating as a business.
The process for delivering the nano SIM on giffgaff was kicked off several weeks ago and is being treated as a high priority, but there are some steps which simply cannot be made faster. For these reasons, at this stage, the company cannot commit to detailed delivery timescales, but we are expecting to launch nano SIMs before the end of this year.
We are aware that this is not the answer many of you will have been hoping for, but it does provide an honest
overview of where we are. We will, of course, continue to explore every available route to delivering the nano
SIM to you earlier and provided that we can find an effective, reliable solution, we will deliver it.
For those of you who would like to be kept up to date with details of the nano SIM delivery on giffgaff,
a ‘Register Your Interest’ page will be launched in the coming days and anyone who registers on this page will be
provided with updates nearer to the launch date by email.
Thanks for providing the update. I suppose where so many things are unknown at this stage you can't be any more specific than 'coming months'. This isn't the kind of solution you can just take a sharp knife too like the micro-sims !
While the nano-SIM might be smaller, there is a downside to it. Unlike the micro-SIM cards, which could be made by simply cutting the normal SIM cards, nano-SIM cards cannot be made this way, as nano-SIM is also 15pc thinner than micro-SIM. So, even if normal/micro-SIM can be cut to the nano-SIM size, there is no way to reduce the thickness.
I was really hoping for better news than this but I can appreciate GG's position.
Glad it is possible to shave a micro sim down to nano size and use it! This is the route I shall be taking, at least until an official nano sim is ready or until another network gets near matching the GG deal.
You must be a registered user to add a comment here. If you've already registered, please log in. If you haven't registered yet, please register and log in.
