Submit: Great giffgaff Ideas

So far only 2 mobile providers in the UK offer blackberry services on PAYG; Orange and T-Mobile. At £5 a month with Orange you get access to the Blackberry Internet Service (Email,Blackberry Messenger, MSN Messenger, Facebook, Twitter etc.). Orange however for texting and calling is quiet expensive. If GiffGaff were to offer Blackberry services on its PAYG service, it would give GiffGaff a competitve advantage in the market. It would firstly be an affordable choice for texting and voice calling, but what would set it out amongst the other providers even more is that they offer Blackberry on PAYG.

Hi guys,

As there is bound to be a new iPhone in a years time(1) and in the future there may also be yet smaller SIMs than the coming nano SIM(2) or maybe something totally groundbreaking and new that networks need to know about(3), I think it may be time that giffgaff get's hold of Apple and requests to be updated about coming features of product releases before the product announcement so their customers are not to be left potentially for months without required items to use their device (like the nano SIMs(4) and instead can have what they need as soon as shipping happens.

I thought of this as the latest blog post(4) stated the following:

"since we do not have a direct relationship with Apple, we have been acting on assumptions and rumours like everyone else until yesterday"

Basically saying that Apple do not tell giffgaff about features which will be in the latest devices (probably because they don't sell iDevices). This is also occuring with other companies (not just mobile netorks) and they too do not find out about new features which could have a bad affect on their business (in giffgaff's case: lose of many customers, less people suggesting the network and looking bad to others not being upto speed with technology)

Now, I appreciate this may not be very easy to do as "giffgaff don't sell iPhones and Apple won't benefit so they don't bother to tell them etc..." or what ever the reason is but maybe giffgaff could come up with some other arrangment with Apple. Maybe one of the following just for example:

Agree with Apple on how many devices on the network are the latest version so Apple know that giffgaff will be helping them grow and it would be benefitial to tell them of latest features which could affect them 

Agree with Apple that O2 can tell them as they are an MVNO

Pay a small fee to get info (maybe not the best but possibility as giffgaff would then be prepared)
giffgaff could sell the iPhone 5 and future versions as they are likely to sell and as I have been told, Apple only care about those who sell it so this could be easier etc, etc, there are dozens of things that potentially giffgaff could agree with Apple on so they benefit on information when it's announced to big companies, just like other networks and make sure that they keep it all secret.

Why do this?

As we know, giffgaff are going to take a couple of months to get the nano SIMs needed (evidently too late for the release of the iPhone 5) but if they got told in advance (say when the other networks found out) next time then maybe they would be ready with the necesary technology for these devices and save losing customers and not benefit from the millions of devices to be bought which could use giffgaff.

It's clear that this major phone release was missed by giffgaff (not having SIMs needed) but next year or the year after when the next breakthrough, network dependent, technology is brought to a phone giffgaff need to be ready (so they can benefit from keeping customers and gsining more!) and will know just like the other networks.

Also, after the release and people have chosen wheher to go to another network who provides nano SIMs, giffgaf could show stats of how much (or maybe little they lost (although would be pointless in that case)) they lost by being kept in the dark to Apple to help them maybe be recognised and be updated from them to save them next time!


EDIT: As some comments have mentioned, having a relationship with Apple could also lead to:

Having asigned giffgaff internet profile on iPhone
Possibly hot spot tethering
Possibly visual voicemail
having the name giffgaff at the top of the iPhone instead of O2 UK
voicemail button could work

Cheers,

Jamie

Please support by clicking the gold star

(1),(2),(3),(4) within spoiler
(1)iPhone 6?
(2)diddy SIM or picco SIM?
(3)injected SIMs or network run trackers/identities? (who knows with Apple!)
(4)read the latest blof post for information regarding nano SIMs taking a few months to come here: http://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Blog/giffgaff-nano-SIM-update/ba-p/5953002

Great news that this is now an implemented part of giffgaff for all of us! Thank you for the continuous support and feedback on this idea, it has been great and overall has had a great end result!

[Edited: Resolved HTML issue]

Hi guys,

As giffgaff once discovered, the iPhone holds the top three spots as the most used mobile phone on giffgaff. News in the last few months rumours about the next iPhone (bound to become high in the leader boards for giffgaff like its brothers) and it may possibly have a nano sim on board which is considerable smaller than an ordinary sim. The link below shows about the possibility of Apple using nano sims:

http://www.idownloadblog.com/2012/06/01/apple-nano-sim-accepted-etsi/

So, if Apple really do have nano sims coming to their device supposedly due for the Autumn and it sure to be a big hitter for giffgaff users giffgaff may need to take the risk and buy some in ready for the release.

Why do this you may say?

Well, nano sims are being made already and being bought by some European countries, shown in the below link:

http://www.idownloadblog.com/2012/07/16/european-carriers-iphone/

Now your next question is going to be along the lines of "why can't you just cut them down like the micro sims were?", well it's not that simple. Nano sims are both smaller and thinners, this means they can't just be put in a cutter and cut down!

http://www.kompyuteran.com/2011/11/do-not-use-sim-cutter-to-have-a-nano-sim/

With nano sims a possibility for the next iPhone (bound to be as successful as its brothers) and non existent at GiffGaff yet, this could result in many hundreds if not thousands of lost members as they won't be able to use GiffGaff on their next iPhone. You may say "GiffGaff have just started doing microsims so they're not going to do nano ones anytime soon", that is true but when a large amount of members possibly leaving the network due to the possible sim change it is something which needs doing to keep members from leaving.

Thank you,

Jamie

(think_of_tomoro)

Would it be possible to have an option to set the goodybag to auto renew at the end of the billing month, or the system texts you to confirm if you want to renew ("reply YES to confirm") and then charges another £10/£35 etc for the next month?

At least this way it emulates pay monthly services but when you decide you don't want it you can just let it expire.

Queuing goodybags is one of the unique selling points of GiffGaff, recurring goodybags are not a USP (in fact they are basically one month rolling contracts which most network do).

There is no technical reason that make queuing and recurring goodybags incompatible. So there should be no reason to remove them.

With the release of the iPhone 4, there is obviously an increasing interest in obtaining MicroSIMS.  However, I wonder how many giffgaffers would actually need one ?

I thought it might make it easier for giffgaff if everybody who does / will want one says so in the same place, instead of in multiple posts spread over the site.

May I suggest, therefore, that if you do need MicroSIMs to be available from giffgaff, you indicate in the usual manner, by clicking the star on this post ?

No reason why people can't add their comments as well, of course, but the main purpose is to give giffgaff a straightforward count of how many people would want one - and therefore whether / how soon it is commercially viable to provide them.

Regards

hg

The idea:

A dedicated giffgaff 4G ‘news and updates’ page, perhaps www.giffgaff.com/4g similar to www.tescomobile.com/4g and the other networks who have had, for several months, a page dedicated to the benefits of 4G and details of a likely timeframe. A way of registering for e-mail updates would also be fantastic.

Why:

There is huge interest in 4G from quite a significant number of users, myself included, who would like reliable updates on the giffgaff 4G situation, yet there is no recent official communication regarding 4G from giffgaff. Searching the giffgaff website for this information yields a lot of member opinion/speculation. A wider Google-search just yields an article from November 2012 featuring Gregg Baker’s (of giffgaff) comments, but this is very out of date, and again contains no specifics.

This leaves those of us wanting 4G ASAP in a state of limbo. Should we continue to wait for official communication on likely timeframes, or should we defect to one of the mainstream networks? An official giffgaff 4G news/updates page would at least give some certainty to the situation.

This is more of a suggestion than an idea, but I believe that newbies ought to be informed that they do not have to buy a goodybag when activating their sim. Too many newbies think that they must buy a goodybag, often paying for something they don't actually want/need. Therefore, on the top up screen for sim activation; why not have a simple message readin along the lines of "You don't need to buy a goodybag upon activation; standard PAYG charges will apply if no goodybag is purchased"

Such a suggestion would reduce confusion among newbies wondering where their top up credit has gone; not realising that it was used to buy the goodybag.

Please click on the arrow if you like the idea, 10 or more kudos please.

Please give feedback too.

Apologies in advance if such a suggestion has already been made.