Free access to WiFi hotspots

gary_1989

Hi all

We’re delighted to announce a couple of new partnerships, allowing us to bring WiFi access to our lovely members, at no extra cost.

We recently ran a WiFi access beta to gather feedback from our members and fine tune the service. Thank you to everyone who contributed. We still welcome all feedback as we continue this journey, but thought it was time to spread the news a bit wider.

WiFi Hotspots Access

Our members are now able to access WiFi at stations and platforms on the London Underground, with WiFi provided by Virgin Media. We’re also teaming up with O2 to provide access to around 8,000 secure hotspots around the UK. Both of these are absolutely free, and members will be able to opt in and out as they wish.

How do I get set-up?

Getting set-up is easy:

Download the latest version of the 'My giffgaff' app
Open the menu and choose 'WiFi Extra'
Press to turn on or install settings (slightly different depending on operating system)

The service may not work on all phones (see our guide for more details).

How does it work?

Once you’re all set up on the app, if you come in range of a hotspot, you may automatically connect to the WiFi there. We say “may”, as various checks go on in the background to check the strength of the WiFi connection. If the hotspot is congested or the signal is weak, you may not automatically connect. As with most non-personal WiFi services, the data speeds can vary.

These WiFi hotspots can be thought of as an extension to the normal O2 network. You can’t manually choose to connect to the hotspots, it all happens behind the scenes. It’s worth checking out our guide for more details.

WiFi is something that can provide a real boost for members, so we’ll continue to try and make this service the best it can be. We’ll work to make sure more and more members can benefit from this in the future (including those unable to access the giffgaff app), and will stay on the lookout for more opportunities for our members (with free ones always being the best!)

Thanks all
Gary

varun1234

gary_1989 it sounds great but would the Wi-Fi be secure as I've used free WiFi in the past and it caused my phone to get a virus

richybhoy36

gary_1989 Hi brilliant a bit extra from the #1 network ! Thanks .

gedbell

gary_1989 This works so well, and so easy to setup, I feel it should be a question to enable it when setting up the app so people don't miss out on this.

davidevans0000

cheers @gary_1989 i once tried to use o2 wifi it was a nightmare they wanted my life story hope things have changed now for the better.

varun1234

davidevans0000 that happened to me too

as7861

Hi @gary_1989,

Awesome news on releasing it to the wider community. One question, will this be advertised more widely for next step ? for example on the website ?

loyalistdan

Any extra wifi sounds good to me

premierphotosuk

@gary_1989 This is better much much better news now that more gaffers around the UK will benefit and not just London.

It's great to see improvements like these coming in. Great work guys 😉

It's always a positive move and this is definitely another one 🙂

rajik

Great news . Ive installed this on my phone now

mark1101b

Done and switched On... I will let you jnow how it goes @gary_1989

koshka

As a non app user I initially thought I was missing out until I realised that as a Virgin media customer with the O2 app, I'm not. 🙂

dan240997

Already tried this and it's great, but what I found is that it's only where some existing O2 hotspots are, like McDonalds etc, if it can be introduced more widespread that'd be great like a town centre (BT sometimes does this in areas but I question how secure it is)

django21

Used O2 before and had mixed results. So might have a test run with this new one.

ma2013

Woohoo, this is great news. Looking forward to trying out the O2 hot-spots! Thanks giffgaff. Getting better and better! ☺️

allan1954

great news @gary_1989

mcilwraith

good news

i have used the o2 app before and it worked fine so hopefully wifi extra will be just as good

bluemoonbaz

@gary_1989

Fantastic news it's great to hear were moving past beta

isabel1066

thank you, @gary1989 could be good o2 wifi hotspot when out and about.

nishitaurmil

wow, that's great news Thank you!! 🙂

rik_mos

Is this more secure than the usual o2 etc public wifi?

finlaybj

Thanks for the news - will give it a try the next time I am in range of an O2 wifi hotspot.

janny27

App downloaded will try next time I'm out. Thank you.

guestcandy

So we can use virgin media wifi now? Good news! Had been using O2 wifi in underground before, and it was not working in some of the station, saying my number is not a O2 one.... Will try to connect to Virginmedia today!